( lass OA H^7r~J 
Hook ,/33ff 

PRESENTED BY 



S E R M 0 N S 



ON IMPORTANT 



DOCTRINAL SUBJECTS, 

WITH 



CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, 



ET 

REV. HOSEA BALLOU 



BOSTON: 
J A M E S M . USHER. 

37 CORN HILL. 



Entered according to Act r Congress, in the year 1852, 
By JAMES M. USHER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of 

Massachusetts. 



8TEKEorsr*;j) r.x 
HOB ART & BOBBINS, 

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERS, 
BOSTON. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The discourses contained in this volume were de- 
livered in the city of Philadelphia, during the two 
last weeks in December, 1821, and the first week in 
January, 1822. Rev. Hosea Ballou, their author, had 
been invited to that city by the Universalist society 
there ; and during his short stay the number of his 
hearers increased so that, at the last service, it was 
supposed there were not far from seven thousand 
people. 

The sermons were taken down by a stenographer at 
the time of delivery. The author had not the oppor- 
tunity of revising and correcting the sheets before 
they went to press ; otherwise some of his arguments 
might have been more full, and the language, in 
many cases, different. The stenographer, however, 
nattered himself that he had presented the discourses 
" totidem verbis;''' but in this, doubtless, he was too 
sanguine. 

The first edition of these sermons was published by 
Mr. Edwin T. Scott, in the year 1822. The style in 
which they were written was exceedingly bad. We 
have endeavored to improve them in this respect, 
although we have not bestowed upon them all that 
alteration which, under circumstances of more leisure, 
we should have been glad to have done. 



IV 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



In regard to the character of the sermons, we have 
a word to say. They are all on important doclrinat, 
subjects. No Universalist can read them without 
feeling a deep and lively interest in the matter before 
him. They are distinguished by a patient reflection, 
originality of conception, closeness of reasoning, and 
pungency of application. The degrading and contra- 
dictory doctrines of the Orthodox creed are exposed, 
and utterly refuted. The love of God, as manifested 
in the great plan of salvation, which is calculated to 
produce in man a moral conformity to the divine 
nature, is set forth, particularly in the sermons enti- 
tled " God's Mindfulness of Man," " Characteristics 
of the Gospel," and 4 'God's Uncaused Love to Men." 
"We flatter ourselves, and we trust not without reason, 
that the circulation of this volume will confirm and 
strengthen the faith of Universalists, bring many to 
the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and impart 
ioy and consolation to all. 

The Nates will, we have no doubt, be considered a 
useful supplement to the work. A part of them were 
appended to the first edition by a gentleman who 
superintended its publication ; but they have been 
retrenched in some parts, and enlarged in others. 

We are happy to close our remarks in this place by 
observing that, with unimpaired energies, he con- 
tinues to discharge his duties as pastor of the Second 
Universalist Society in this city, besides other arduous 
labors ; and that the present state of his health is 
such as to justify the hope that his usefulness will be 
continued yet for a long time. 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



TVe need not here recapitulate the facts contained 
in the preface to the edition of 1832. The work 
has been for a long time out of print, and many 
inquiries have been made for it. The venerable 
author never produced poor sermons. There is a 
peculiar originality in all he wrote. He was no 
copyist ; he followed no author, in the matter of his 
sermons, except the sacred writers. He preached 
much on the character and attributes of God; on 
God's care of men ; on the perfection of God's law ; 
on the power of Christian faith ; on the character of 
Jesus, as the sent of God and the Saviour of the 
world; on his divine mission, devotion, knowledge, 
power and success ; on the nature of pure religion ; 
on the punishment of sin ; on the scriptural doctrine 
of judgment ; on life and immortality, &c. &c. ; — 
and on all these subjects he spoke with a clearness 
and force of argument that carried conviction to the 
minds of all unprejudiced believers. 

At the moment of putting this edition to the 
press, the long, laborious, useful, Christian life of the 
author of the sermons was closed. He died on the 
seventh of June, 1852, after an illness of only six 
days. 

THOMAS WHITTEMOEE. 

June 12, 1852. 

1# 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON I. 

PAGB 

GOD'S MINDFULNESS OF MAN, 9 

SERMON II. 
TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST, ........... 25 

SERMON III. 
PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW, 42 

SERMON IV. 
THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR, 62 

SERMON V. 
ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MAN, 81 

SERMON VI. 

RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK, 101 

SERMON VII. 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL, 116 

SERMON VIII. 
HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN, 132 



Tin 



CONTEXTS. 



SERMON IX. 
GOD'S UNCAUSED LOTE TO MAN, . . 

SERMON X. 

ERRONEOUS YXEWS OF A JUDGMENT, 

SERMON XI. 

FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE, 



NOTES, 

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY, . . 



SERMON I. 



What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the 

SON OF MAN, THAT THOU YISITEST HTM ? Psalm 8 : 4. 

It is established, by the question stated in the 
text, that God is mindful of man ; otherwise, there 
would be no propriety in the question, " What is 
man, that thou art mindful of him ?" 

It is established, by the question in the text, that 
God is mindful of man on account of what man is ; 
otherwise, it would be improper to ask the question, 
" What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? " 

It is established, by the text, that, on account of 
the mindfulness of God towards man, he visits him. 
Though the question in the text is varied, it is but 
one question : "What is man, that thou art mindful 
of him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest 
him ?" 

The design of the present discourse is, to answer 
this question. 



10 



god's mindfulness of man. 



God is mindful of man on account of what 
man is. 

In the first place, man is the creature of God. 
God is his Author, — his Maker ; to God we owe 
our existence, and it is an unreasonable supposition 
that a God of infinite wisdom would make anything 
without a design ; and, consistently with the design 
the Creator had in making the thing that he made, 
he must be mindful of it. 

This idea may be communicated to your under^ 
standing in the simple simile of your own under- 
takings. You never make anything without seme 
purpose ; and when you have made it, you regard it 
exactly in proportion as it answers the purpose for 
which you made it ; and you will see, upon a 
moment's reflection, that it is morally impossible 
that any intellectual being should make anything 
for no purpose. Hence, it is plain and evident 
that God made his creature for a purpose ; and 
in relation to all the dignity of that purpose 
he must regard the creature which he has so 
made. 

Thus we have given you one answer to our ques- 
tion, " What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? 



god's mindfulness of man. 



and the son of man, that thou visit est him ?" He 
is the creature of God. 

Secondly, Man is a moral, intellectual being, 
constituted with a capacity to improve in wisdom, 
in knowledge, and in understanding. It will not be 
difficult for the hearer to perceive that this state- 
ment is a proper answer to our question ; because 
a being which possesses the qualities which man 
possesses, having an intellectual capacity, capable 
of learning and being instructed, must be designed 
for that purpose ; for the Creator could have no 
reason why he should give man a capacity to learn, 
unless he designed him for improvement. "Why 
does man possess a capacity for knowledge, why 
is he made susceptible of instruction, unless that in 
these capacities he is to be improved ? When you 
learn the capacity of the thing made, and what end 
it is calculated to answer, you learn, at the same 
time, what it is designed for, and what it was in- 
tended for by its maker. It is evident from the 
history of mankind, as well as from our own obser- 
vation, that man is possessed of these qualifications. 
He is capable of being instructed ; he is capable of 
being taught ; he is capable of being improved in 



12 



god's mindfulness of man. 



the exercise of his understanding ; he is capable, 
my friends, of being brought to a knowledge of that 
God who made him. 

Hence, God is mindful of man as an intellectual, 
moral being. Hawing capacitated him for the recep- 
tion of instruction, for a growth in wisdom, knowl- 
edge and understanding, it is reasonable that he 
should regard his creature as such, and improve him 
to the full extent of his powers. And that this is 
the law of intellectual nature, you will easily per- 
ceive by yourselves. As far as it comes within the 
compass of your power, you take delight and satis- 
faction in instructing those docile birds and animals 
which you find to be capable of any improvement. 
And you are not disposed to discontinue the means 
of such improvement, so long as they may be em- 
ployed with success. You may not think, while 
thus employed, what this inclination philosophically 
proves ; but it is evidence to show that it is the 
nature of intellect to strive to improve intellectual 
powers. 

The infinite Jehovah, as a Being of boundless 
wisdom and knowledge, must take peculiar delight 
and unbounded satisfaction in improving the intel- 



god's mindfulness of man. 13 

lectual beings tliat he has made, in advancing them 
from one state of knowledge to another, from one 
degree of improvement to another ; and, mj friends, 
we learn from this another idea, valuable beyond 
estimation, namely, it is not reasonable that God 
will ever stop the improvement of his intellectual 
creature, so long as that being is capable of being 
improved. It is manifest, my hearers, that God 
will never cease to do this. He will never cease 
to love us ; he will never cease to advance us in 
knowledge. The great theme of the gospel of 
Jesus is designed for this purpose. In an address 
to the Father, recorded in the seventeenth chapter 
of the gospel of St. John, Jesus says to his Father, 
" Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify 
thee : as thou hast given him power over all flesh, 
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou 
hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they 
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent." 

Hence the necessity of our being improved in 
knowledge ; hence the propriety of the gospel dis- 
pensation for this purpose ; hence the propriety of 
the idea, my friends, that the nature of our heavenly 
2 



14 



god's mindfulness op man. 



Father is to advance his offspring man in the knowl- 
edge of himself. 

A thought strikes your humble servant, which 
must not be passed over. There has been a doctrine 
long promulgated, that there is a time coming when 
God will not allow the ignorant an opportunity to 
learn ; when he will not allow his creatures the 
means of education; when he will not allow his 
moral being an opportunity to advance in knowledge 
and wisdom. My friends, whether this idea is in 
the least accordant with the nature of God, with the 
nature of his goodness, with the nature of his wis- 
dom, you can judge as well as I. 

Thirdly. I have another answer to the question 
under consideration, — "What is man, that thou art 
mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou vis- 
itest him ? " I have an answer now to give you, 
perfectly sufficient, if I had named nothing else. 
The answers I have given you I believe you will 
not say are unreasonable or inapplicable. They are 
perfectly reasonable. Independent of them, how- 
ever, there is another answer, one which is in per- 
fect accordance with the others, and which, of itself, 
is entirely sufficient. What is that ? It is that 



GGD ? S MINDFULNESS OF MAN. 



15 



which we predicate of a number of passages in 
Scripture, particularly the testimony of St. Paul 
when at Athens, Before the court of Athens, he 
gave a decisive answer to the question now under 
consideration ; he took advantage of the light and 
wisdom which God had given the Grecian poets, and 
said, " For in him we live, and move, and have our 
being : as certain also of your own poets have said, 
for we are also his offspring" 

My friends, is man the offspring of God 1 Is 
man the child of God ? It is answer enough why 
God is mindful of man. For this I can appeal to 
your feelings, your senses, and your understanding. 
Where is the parent who is not mindful of his chil- 
dren ? And how perfectly natural it is that the 
parent should be mindful of his offspring ! There 
is that relation between the parent and child which 
constitutes the propriety of the mindfulness of the 
parent towards the child. This, my hearers, is 
perfectly in unison with the other answers I have 
given you, and adds largely to their importance. 
Man being considered an intellectual being, capable 
of mental improvement, the Almighty must take a 
delight in advancing his knowledge and wisdom as 



16 



GOD ? S MINDFULNESS OF MAS. 



far as it is capable of being advanced ; added to 
this, he is considered as the offspring and very child 
of God, which forms the answer to the question 
why God is mindful of us. 

I will indulge the objector, for a moment, in his 
opinion. It will strike him that we ought not to 
style man the offspring of God in his natural state ; 
but he must become a regenerated being, he must 
be changed from his natural to a spiritual state, 
before he can be justly called the offspring of God. 
If so, how would St. Paul justify himself? He was 
speaking before the court of Athens, and appealing 
to the testimony of the Grecian poets, and said, 
" For we are also his offspring." It is not supposa- 
ble that the Grecian poets had any reference to the 
regenerated state of man, but to his natural state ; 
and St. Paul had no other meaning, in giving this 
answer ; because, if he had another meaning, he 
ought not to have u?ed their language. The same 
answer to the question under consideration is given 
by Jeremiah : " Turn, 0 backsliding children, saith 
the Lord, for I am married unto you." This is the 
language of a father. " Turn, 0 backsliding chil- 
dren." They are called " children " by God, who 



god's mindfulness of man. 



17 



commands them to turn to him. Here are two 

relations, the most important in all society, of which 

he predicates his argument and expostulation. He 

calls them, in the first place, "his children." How 

reasonable, therefore, is it that they should return ! 

He then brings up the relation of marriage : " for I 

am married unto you." He does not say, " I iviU 

be married unto you," but claims absolutely this 

sacred relation as the foundation of a command that 

they should return, 

My hearers, does not our blessed Saviour, the 

great Teacher sent from God, establish this doctrine 

likewise ? Does he not direct us, when we pray, to 

call God "our Father, who art in heaven" ? "Whose 

duty is it to pray ? It is the duty of all. Is it not 

a correct practice to teach this prayer to our little 

children ? TTould you teach them to pray to their 

Father who is in heaven, if they have no Father 

there ? Would you teach them to address God as 

their Father, and then systematically teach them 

that God is not their Father ? He is the Father 

of all the moral creation. He is the Father of 

every individual of the human family. He is 

declared to be the Father of our spirits. If so, 
2* 



18 



god's mindfulness of man. 



then we are his offspring, emphatically ; and, being 
the offspring of God, he is mindful of us, and he has 
visited us. 

Having answered the question stated in the text, 
I shall pursue the subject by noticing the visits God 
has made the children of men. 

Keep the idea constantly in your minds, that 
whatever notice God has taken of man, whatever 
visits he has made us, are on account of what man 
is, on account of his care of man, on account of his 
love to his offspring. Contemplate, then, for a 
moment, the innumerable blessings of the providence 
of God ! Reflect, my friendly hearers, on the 
favors you have received at his hand, as you have 
passed through the several stages of life ! Contem- 
plate the fatherly kindness he showed towards you 
before you knew that there was such a Being ! 
Contemplate the tender providence of the Almighty 
when you knew not that time passed away, — when 
you knew not your own dependence, — when you 
knew not what was necessary for your own life ! 
In that condition, — in that tender, feeble condition, 
— how were you surrounded by the tender mercies 



god's mindfulness or man. 



19 



of God ! and know, this was all on account of the 
mindfulness of God towards you. 

As you advanced in days and years, you advanced 
in wisdom and knowledge, until you came to know 
the Supreme Creator and Euler of all things. The 
sentiment which teaches that it is necessary for man 
to know God, in order that God may be good to 
him, is not correct. If it were correct, then the 
parent should not take care of the child until the 
child has a knowledge of the parent. If this doc- 
trine were reduced to practice, no child would ever 
come to the knowledge of its parent. It is a long 
time that the child is nurtured by the parent before 
it comes to the knowledge of that parent ; and in- 
numerable blessings do we receive from God before 
we know there is a God, much less know his moral 
qualities. But, all the time, he is taking care of 
us, providing for our welfare, and acting upon the 
principles which are requisite to our well-being. 

We may now take into consideration the visit 
which God has made man in the gospel of his dear 
Son, and contemplate this precious gift of God to the 
world. Hear the language. " God so loved the 
world that he gave his only-begotten Son ; that 



20 



god's mindfulness of man. 



whosoever believetli on him might not perish, but 
have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son 
into the world to condemn the world, but that the 
world through him might be saved." 

Thus, you see, the gift of J esus was on account 
of God's love to the world, — a love which existed 
before this gift was bestowed. This was not a gift 
made to induce our Father to love us. Such a con- 
clusion would be a very strange, perversion. A 
father does not make a present to a child to make 
him love the child, but because he does love the child. 
The love is antecedent, and the gift is designed to 
favor the object of affection, and to let this object of 
affection know the love which exists in the parent's 
bosom. 

This is the great theme of the gospel of J esus ; 
and the gospel indeed goes further, and says, " God 
commendeth his love towards us, in that ivhile we 
were enemies Christ died for us." Thus every 
gospel promise, every gospel privilege, every gospel 
favor, is the production of the mindfulness of God 
concerning his offspring. All that our Saviour did 
was a visit of God to us. It was the visit of our 
heavenly Father ; it was the visit of our heavenly 



god's mindfulness of man, 



21 



Father's mercy to his offspring here below. Every 
dispensation of grace which is manifested to his 
children is a manifestation of God's mindfulness of 
his offspring ; and, my hearers, the grand result of 
the gospel dispensation shows what God has designed 
for his children ; and what he has designed for his 
children is just what a parent, in the winding up 
of his earthly affairs, designs for his offspring. He 
gives him an estate ; he puts his property into his 
hands, — so testifies the Spirit. " The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the chil- 
dren of God ; and, if children, then heirs, heirs of 
God and joint heirs with Christ." Thus " God hath 
given us eternal life ; and this life is in his Son." 
Why did God give us, eternal life ? Because he is 
himself eternal life, and a father can never give less 
than himself. God has given us himself. All that 
he is he has given to the children of men. We are 
the heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. 

In the result of our reasoning we have this 
pleasing reflection, this sublime, this instructive 
lesson, namely, the wisdom which constituted the 
vast frame of the universe, and organized all 
nature, — the 'power that raised this glorious 



22 



god's mindfulness of man. 



superstructure upon its basis, — has ever been di- 
rected, and ever will be directed, towards the good 
and benefit of mankind. And that there can be 
no such thing as partiality, or anything like cruelty, 
in all the system of God, as the moral governor of 
the world, is as plain a proposition as can possibly 
be stated. There is not, in the bosom of the rational 
father, any principle but goodness to his children. 
There is not, in the bosom of our heavenly Father, 
nor can there be, anything like cruelty or partiality ; 
but his eternal wisdom is ever working for the ben- 
efit of his creatures. Thus is the question answered, 
" What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? 
and the son of man, that thou visitest him ? " 

Consider, then, my hearers., that we are all the 
work of God's hand; we are intellectual beings, 
capable of being improved ; we are the offspring of 
God. He visits us on account of what we are ; and, 
from this doctrine, the result is natural. We feel 
our dependence, and, to the utmost of our moral 
abilities, we ought, therefore, to endeavor to improve 
ourselves, as far as it is possible ; remembering that 
it is as much our duty to honor God as it is the 
duty of the child to honor the parent. It is the 



god's mindfulness of man* 



23 



duty of man to honor his parent God, and to obey 
his commandments, and that from the purest prin- 
ciple of love ; and to walk in obedience to his will, 
that we may act like rational creatures. Keep this 
sentiment always in your minds ; let it ever direct 
your hearts. Love God constantly, and abundant 
will be your peace, abundant your joy, abundant 
your satisfaction and delight. And, instead of 
tending, as our opposers sometimes assert, to licen- 
tiousness, to a corruption of morals, and an indulg- 
ence of unbridled passions, it will always tend to 
lead us to conduct ourselves with the utmost pro- 
priety in relation to our heavenly Father, in relation 
to all mankind as brethren, and in relation to our- 
selves. As it is of the highest importance that the 
child should know the dignity and character of his 
parent, in order that he may act according to that 
dignity, so it is important that we should know God, 
in order that we may not degrade ourselves by a low 
estimation of our moral nature, but contemplate 
that God has made us rational beings. 

0, what a delightful thought it is, when your 
humble servant, travelling as he now is, beholds the 
face of an audience he never before saw, to look 



24 



god's mindfulness of man. 



on them, and reflect that they are all the children 
of one Father, all the children of God, and joint 
heirs with Jesus Christ ! Most delightful, most 
moralizing, most humanizing thought ! And how 
perfectly calculated to make us, one and all, improve 
in the understanding of divine things, to the honor 
of our Father, God, and to the comfort of ourselves! 



SERMON II. 



Foe we which have believed do enter into rest. — 
Hebrews 4 : 3. 

If we take the word rest in its proper latitude, it 
will comprehend all the comforts and consolations of 
the gospel of Christ. And, with this exposition of 
that word, we shall say that our text proves that 
the Christian faith embraces nothing but what is 
consistent with man's happiness. This you will 
perceive, on the reading of the text : " For we which 
have believed do enter into rest" Thus faith in the 
gospel of Jesus Christ introduces the believer to the 
enjoyment of rest, peace, delight, and consolation. 
If this, then, be the fact, you will perceive my first 
proposition is proved most clearly by the text, 
namely, the gospel faith embraces nothing incon- 
sistent with the happiness of the believer. 

Secondly, Our text suggests this important fact, 
that the blessings of faith are the consequences of 
3 



26 TRUE PAITH A SOUKCE 01 REST. 

believing, and are enjoyed in the same time in which 
the believer is exercising faith in the gospel. Ob- 
serve the tense, my hearers, in which the verb is 
found : " We which have believed no enter rest 
that is, in the present time. This is in support of 
the fact suggested before, that the blessings which 
we receive in consequence of believing the truth 
are received and enjoyed in the present time, while 
we are believers. 

The first position may now pass under examina- 
tion. The Christian faith embraces nothing thai 
is inconsistent with the happiness, the rest, and the 
enjoyment, of the believer. The Christian believes 
in God. He is a believer in God, his Maker ; but 
he does not believe that God possesses any attribute 
which is hostile to his happiness. If this thought 
should enter his heart, — if he should believe that 
God possesses an attribute that is hostile to the best 
good and happiness of his crea cures, — could he enjoy 
rest, comfort or co /isolation, in that belief? Xo. 
My friends, when you combine the attributes of 
Jehovah, and contemplate that he is a being unlim- 
ited in knowledge, and unquestionably possessed of 
supreme power over his creatures, and then believe 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST, 27 

that lie possesses any disposition inimical to the 
happiness and peace of the works of his hand, 
every feeling soul is harrowed up to all the exer- 
cise of horror ; and if there be a desire in the 
heart, it is to be delivered from such a God. But 
the whole character of the Divine Being is eluci- 
dated to the understanding through the glorious 
mediation of J esus Christ, " who is the brightness 
of the Father's glory, and the express image of his 
person."" To God we can look and say, u There is 
my father, my unchangeable friend, the origin of 
my being, who is all love, all mercy, ail compassion." 
If any perturbation possessed the soul, if any 
fearful apprehension was entertained, it is now van- 
ished and gone ; "for he that belieyeth entereth into 
rest." 

Can we indulge (without being thought invidious) 
in some observations with regard to certain errors 
that have been introduced into the Christian 
church ? It shall be by way of querying whether 
such sentiments can be believed, and, when believed, 
have the effect of introducing the believer to the 
enjoyment of rest. My friends, it has been taught 
in the Christian church that the Creator, from all 



28 TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 

eternity, proposed, in his irrevocable decrees, that 
but part of the human family should be everlast- 
ingly blest in the enjoyment of peace ; and, in con- 
sequence, it has been believed that millions of 
rational men were decreed, from unborn ages of 
eternity,, to suffer inconceivable, indescribable mis- 
ery, as long as the throne of God shall exist ! I 
will by no means wound the feelings of my hearers 
by exposing such a sentiment with regard to its 
parts and ligaments ; but I would humbly call on 
you to decide this question, which is, by no means, 
a difficult one, — If you believe such a sentiment as 
this, does it give you rest ? Does it introduce 
peace and enjoyment to the soul ? My friends, I 
will allow you to believe that you are among the 
elected, — and you will find that every one who be- 
lieves in this sentiment believes that he is elected, — 
allow this to be your condition, yet does it give you 
rest ? " Why not ? " says the hearer. " If I be- 
lieve that I am elected, why should I not have peace 
and rest?" 0 ! dear man! dear woman ! have you 
no connections in the world ? Are you insulated 
from human nature ? Do you thus stand alone ? I 
ask you to look at the companion of your bosom, 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OP REST. 29 

look on the child of your love, and say if you can 
believe in this doctrine, and believe it probable that 
these connections were originally doomed by the 
decree of Heaven to everlasting wretchedness, and 
derive consolation from that belief? My friends, 
we will do what it is perfectly right to do in this 
case, and what the circumstances of the case compel 
us to do. We will appeal to the consciences of 
those who not only believe this creed, but propagate 
it in the world. Ask them if their faith gives them 
rest? They do not pretend it. The more they 
rely on that faith, they say themselves, the more 
anxious they are, and the more concerned they are, 
for the welfare of their immortal souls. Yery well ; 
this is an honest confession, and exactly what we 
should expect from a good man. Do you see them 
in agony ? Yes. Do you sometimes see them in 
tears ? Yes. Do you sometimes see them look- 
ing gloomy ? Yes. Do you hear them groan 
with grief? Yes. They believe ; yes, they are 
real believers. Of what ? Why, of that which 
administers to them this torment. They believe 
what no man can believe will be realized, without 
being tormented. Do they not tell us, from the 
3* 



30 



TRUE EARTH A SOURCE OF REST. 



pulpit, how anxious they feel by day, and how tor- 
mented they are by night ? This is the true testi- 
mony ; and we read in the Scriptures that " they 
have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast 
and his image.'' Whoever worships a Deity or 
a God that is not as they wish him to be never 
can have any comfort or consolation in worshipping 
him. The last-recited passage of Scripture actually 
belongs to this subject. It is only necessary to 
remark that the reading of the text justifies this en- 
tirely. " They HAVE no rest," in the present tense. 

" They have no rest day nor night, who worship 
the beast and his image." What worship is that ? 
Worship of a deity full of wrath, full of vengeance, 
full of displeasure against his creatures, These are 
the characteristics of a beast of prey. And when a 
deity is possessed of these qualities, and man falls 
down before him, it is on account of the agonies of 
soul and torments of mind that he endures. Some, 
indeed, are honest enough to tell you that, if they 
did not believe God were such a being, they would 
not worship him at all ; and they wonder men do 
worship him who do not believe him to possess such 
a character. You will see, therefore, my friends, 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 



the necessity of possessing a faith embracing prop- 
erties consoling- to the human heart. 

Examine, however, a different creed. TTe will 
say, as some do, " Our God is not the partial being- 
he is represented to be, who, from all eternity, made 
a division of human creatures, designing to bless 
some and curse others. But he is a being who, from 
a benevolent principle of generous love for his crea- 
tures, has made them all capable of inheriting 
eternal salvation, but has rested it on the condition 
of their obedience." 2uy brethren, allow, if you 
please, that this is true. Does this give you rest, to 
believe that jour eternal state depends upon your 
own works, — on the correctness of your wiews, on 
the orthodoxy of your own sentiments and opinions, 
on the conformity of your conduct to the require- 
ments and commandments of God, while you pass 
through a temporal existence? And when you 
contemplate your own imperfections, and when you 
look over the many indications of defect which you 
discover in your thoughts and actions, can you then 
derive comfort and consolation in saying, " I shall 
soon be before my Maker ; my God will search my 
heart; he will judge me and reward me according 



32 TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OE REST. 

to my works ; and I am perfectly at rest, perfectly 
at peace, in the belief that if I have as much happi- 
ness in the eternal world as I merit by good works 
in this, I shall be as happy as I wish ! " 

Is there such a believer in this congregation? 
Not one. Not one. Christians of this description 
are laboring under fearful apprehensions. Their 
work is not done. What are they at work for ? To 
secure an eternal state of felicity in another world. 
How much must they do ? This is doubtful. Have 
they made any progress ? This again is doubly 
doubtful. What a large discount must there be 
made from the comforts and consolations of such 
believers ! If we go to them, and ask the question 
we asked in the former case, we shall receive a 
similar answer. Their behavior never can indicate 
that they have peace. It never can indicate that 
they enjoy repose. They are perpetually harassed, 
and exercised with tormenting fears, that, in the 
balance weighed at last, they shall be found wanting. 

It is their firm belief that millions of their fellow- 
creatures will be found wanting on the day of judg- 
ment, of which they speak, and will be entirely 
banished from all favor, and from all love and kind- 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 



33 



ness of God, My dear friends, let me ask you, can 
you believe in any doctrine which results eventually 
in the division of human nature, by which one part 
of our fellow-creatures are sent to never-ceasing 
misery, without feeling in your own hearts those 
fearful apprehensions which sometimes lead you to 
look on. yourselves as exposed to never-ending woe ? 
Can you, then, look upon the companion of your 
bosom, without being exercised with awful appre- 
hensions and painful reflections for the object of 
your affections ? Can you look on your children, 
without being harassed by painful agony on their 
account ? Can you look on the world at large, and 
believe with those who have computed that so many 
iiiilliuiis gu duwn to regions of everlasting despair 
and torment every year, and be at rest ? 

This sentiment is by no means calculated to give 
peace. It is by no means calculated to administer 
comfort or repose to your minds. But, if we believe 
what our blessed Saviour taught, as the pure doc- 
trine of God, his Father, we shall necessarily rest 
satisfied that we are the children of God. We shall 
believe God is our Father, the unchangeable friend 
and Father of every being he has created. There 



34 TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST, 

Was never anything necessary to be done by man- 
kind, in order to induce God to be merciful. There 
was never anything necessary to be done by God, to 
make God love us. There was never anything 
necessary to be done by us, to make God our friend, 
and to make God love us. You will not say the 
speaker excludes the necessity of good works ; but he 
predicates them of the noble principle of love. Truth 
is always simple. There is no contradiction in it. 
There is nothing in it difficult to be understood. If 
you understand the principle in one case, you can 
always understand it. Now, all I have said on this 
part of the subject is summed up in this : It is 
not necessary for you to do anything for your child 
to induce you to love it. It is not necessary for 
the child to do anything to constitute you a lover of 
it. All you do for your child is done because you 
love it ; and all the duty it owes you is by reason of 
the love you bear it, and the favors it received from 
you. This is plain doctrine, and not disputable ; 
and hence it is perfectly easy to perceive that God, 
the author of all our blessings, never required any- 
thing of us to render him kind, but our obedience 
rests on the principle of his goodness to us. God 



TRUE PAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 35 

denies us nothing which is for our good ; God re- 
quires nothing but for our benefit. He has no 
interest to serve but our happiness, and hence he is 
engaged in no other cause than that in which a 
parent is engaged, who is endeavoring to render his 
family as comfortable and as blest as possible. This 
is the true character of God, as represented to us by 
Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Read the Scripture : " Moreover the law entered, 
that the offence might abound. But where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound : that, as 
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace 
reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by 
Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 5 : 20, 21. 

Sin was never the occasion of any enmity in God 
towards mankind. This is easily perceived. " God 
manifested his love to us in that while toe were yet 
sinners Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8. Now, God 
could not manifest love that he did not possess. 
He must have loved us while we were yet sinners, 
or he would not have sent us such a blessing as is 
Christ. Again, Christ says, "God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," &c. 
And so love is the author of every other .gift. The 



86 TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF RE*Y, 

idea, then, that God entertains wrath towards 
mankind, is erroneous, and always has been erro- 
neous. " But " says the objector, " according to 
this doctrine, it certainly matters not what we do ; 
for, if God is to be our friend while we transgress 
his law, as well as our friend while we obey his 
law, then it is no matter whether we obey or trans- 
gress." This is a mistake most injurious to com- 
munity. Must we believe that, because God has 
no enmity towards us, it is no matter whether we 
obey him or not ? This is most injurious to society ; 
and I will apply this doctrine to your family 
government. When a child disobeys you, must 
you persuade that child that, on account of its dis- 
obedience, you are its enemy, or say to the child 
it is no matter what it does ? You know you love 
the child, though it disobeys you ; but is it no 
matter what the child does ? This is not the fact. 
It is necessary the child should obey the parent 
For what ? Because your requirement of obedience 
embraces the happiness of the child, and the child 
cannot be happy in disobedience. Man can never 
be blest without obedience ; but he is blest in obe- 
dience, and in obedience alone. 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 37 

The love the father of the prodigal had towards 
the prodigal was the same. It was the same when 
the prodigal returned as it was before he went 
away. But would you say, if that father still loved 
the child, it was no matter what the child did? 
that it was no matter what disobedience it was 
guilty of? This is a wrong sentiment, and tends to 
the injury of society. " Know ye not that it is the 
goodness of God that leadeth you to repentance ? " 
Rom. 2:4. Is it not gratitude to God that forms 
the basis of religion and devotion ? Shall we teach 
man to worship him from slavish fear ? Shall we not 
rather say, as St. Paul does in his argument to the 
Romans, " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by 
the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a 
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
your reasonable service" ? Rom. 12: 1. 

He besought them by the mercy, not by the 
tyranny, wrath and vindictive justice, of God. He 
besought them by the mercies of our heavenly 
Father, in all the simplicity of a friend going into 
your house, and saying, " Children, I beseech you, by 
the tenderness, by the kindness, and by the com- 
passion of your parents, to obey them, and devote 
4 



38 TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 

yourself entirely to their wisdom, experience, and 
knowledge." 

It is desirable to look into the Scriptures to see 
what they require us to believe. When men write 
creeds, they write many articles ; but J esus Christ 
says, " Believe in God ; believe also in me." 
That seems to be the whole faith. TThat is this 
belief? To believe in God as the all-wise author 
of our being, and in Jesus Christ as our deliverer 
from sin and death. Believe in this, and believe in 
the whole extent of it, and believe God is destitute 
of partiality, and of any power to make this division 
among the human family, as he is represented as 
the father of all, and you will enter into rest. The 
moment you believe this doctrine, you have peace. 
You will not serve him because you are afraid of 
torment, but because you love him, because you 
have peace and enjoyment in obeying the com- 
mandments and requirements of God. It is a false 
notion that it is no matter what we do, if God loves 
us ; because all that God has done for man stands 
up as evidence of God, as evidence of his good- 
ness and immutable nature, and stands as an induce- 
ment to us to honor and glorify our Maker. Let 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 39 

us observe, the blessings of faith must be enjoyed 
while faith lasts. The Christian church expects to 
receive blessings in the future world, as a reward 
and compensation for its faith in this. Here is a 
strange notion. My friends, you must enjoy the 
blessings of your faith while you have your faith ; 
and you must suffer the consequence of your unbe- 
lief while your unbelief lasts. 

As I have just time to represent this in a simile 
simple and natural, I will suppose that some poor 
creature, in the circle of the society in which you 
move, should believe that the sun will never rise 
again, nor glorify the day, nor any longer give light 
to the world, and this gloomy soul should persuade 
many others to think the same. The rest of society 
believe that the sun will rise as he did this morning, 
and pass on as he has always done. Now, how 
long are you to be blessed in consequence of believ- 
ing the promises of God, that day and night shall 
continue ? When do you receive that blessing ? 
During the light? No, not after the sun rises, 
because then it has come. On the other hand, 
when are those tormented who are in unbelief? 
It is impossible they can be tormented with unbe- 



40 TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 

lief when they see the sun rise. The inconvenience 
of unbelief must be only during the night; for, 
the moment the evidence of a glorious morning 
appears, and the sun begins to shine, their gloom 
and unbelief are dissipated together, and they break 
out in joy and acclamations of satisfaction. The 
words of St. Paul are applicable to this subject : 
" What if some did not believe ? shall the unbelief 
of man make the faith of God of no effect ? God 
forbid." God is just as good, my brethren, when 
men are unbelievers, as when they are believers; 
but by believing we enter into enjoyment. We 
believe the testimony of the gospel, through which 
our blessed Saviour has brought life and immor- 
tality to light, — not created it, but brought it to 
light, — he has manifested it, and we believe in 
this state of life and immortality. We do not 
expect immortality because we believe, but peace of 
soul. And, my dear friends, if you believe in the 
unchangeable, impartial kindness of God towards 
the human family, and in the resurrection of his 
Son, our Saviour, from the dead, and that he is 
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanc- 
tification, — while you believe in this, you will 



TRUE FAITH A SOURCE OF REST. 



41 



enter into rest, and enjoy peace and comfort, by 
that belief. 

And now, may God Almighty grant that we may 
duly appreciate the blessings bestowed upon us, 
enter into rest, and enjoy all the sweets, comforts, 
and consolations, of the gospel of peace ! 
4* 



SERMON III. 



But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, 
and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful 
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall 
be blessed in his deed. — Janies 1 : 25. 

A description of the perfect law of liberty is the 
first subject to which the attention of the hearer is 
invited. Though it has pleased our heavenly Father 
to reveal himself in a vast variety of forms or 
methods, yet in all his dispensations he is the same 
being, and is possessed of the same character ; and 
though at different periods he may have instituted 
different rites and ceremonies, as the means whereby 
the people should exercise themselves in holiness, 
and in the spirit of divine worship, he was always 
the same, and must ever remain the same; and 
though different names are given to different dis- 
pensations recorded in the Scriptures, yet the law 



PERFECTION OF GOB'S LAW. 



48 



of the All-wise Creator never has varied, and never 
can vary. God, being the Father of all rational, 
intelligent beings, has but one unchangeable law by 
which to govern them, and that law is the law 
mentioned in the text. We hear of the law given 
to the house of Israel by the mediator of the first 
covenant, and we read of the law of the spirit of 
life in Christ Jesus. My brethren and friends, 
these are the same laws ; for the law of Moses is all 
gummed up and explained in these words, by the 
blessed Redeemer, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all 
thy strength, and with all thy might. This is the 
first and great commandment of the law, and the 
second is like unto it ; thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all 
the law and the prophets." 

Permit me here to observe that this law is the 
same as the law of the Spirit of life in Christ J esus, 
which makes us free from the law of sin and death. 
The law of sin is death; but the law of life in 
Christ Jesus is the law of love, and no other law 
can make the transgressor free from sin, What- 
ever other methods are proposed, whatever sug- 



44 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



gestions have been made by the wisdom of the 
world respecting means and methods whereby the 
sinner is justified, Heaven devised but one way, 
and that is by conformity to the law of God. Who- 
ever loves the Lord his God, and his neighbor as 
himself, fulfils the law, and in that he is justified ; 
and it is altogether impossible that any other kind 
of justification should do the creature the least good. 
This law of the Spirit of life in Christ is the law 
of love to God, and love to man; and the apostle 
says that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even 
in this, " thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
In further describing this law, we shall take notice 
of its perfection. It is called, as in our text, " the 
perfect law of liberty." It then must be a perfect 
law of liberty. A law is perfect, if it needs no 
amendment or alteration to answer the purpose for 
which it was made. In human legislation it is 
frequently the case that it is necessary to make 
alterations and amendments in a law to answer the 
purposes and ends of that law ; but in divine legis- 
lation there is no occasion for this, because our 
heavenly Father could make no mistake. Almighty 
God, in framing a law, knew what would answer the 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



45 



purpose , and therefore his law was complete and 
perfect in the beginning. Now, no other law would 
answer the purpose, but the law of love ; for love 
towards God secures the creature's obedience, in all 
its forms ; because, whoever loves another always 
endeavors to conform to what is agreeable to the 
person he loves. And if we love our neighbors as 
ourselves, it is impossible that we can trespass on 
their rights, privileges or immunities, in any shape, 
or ever fall short of doing everything to them, and 
for them, that they can need from us, as far as we 
are able. You see, then, the perfection of the law. 
It never can be altered, it never can be changed ; it 
was perfect in the beginning, it is perfect now, it 
will always remain a perfect law. There never will 
be any need of repealing it ; it will be always binding, 
always obligatory, on every being in the universe ; 
and you will hear the cry, through all heaven and 
through all nature, " Love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, — love thy neighbor as thyself." This 
is pure, unsullied divinity, from God the Creator of 
all. My friends, it never can possibly be otherwise 
than the duty of every mortal being to love his 
Creator and his fellow-beings. 



46 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



The perfection of this law appears in its being 
perfectly calculated to answer the end and purpose 
of that law, which is the ultimate happiness and 
felicity of the subject. It is not necessary for me 
to inform my hearers that the very end and design 
is the happiness of a subject. Any law that does 
not produce the happiness of the subject in the 
result is a law that does not answer its designs. 
And here permit me to observe that it is proof 
positive that our heavenly Father designed the hap- 
piness of every rational creature, in that he subjected 
all to his requirement, " Love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.' * 
Permit me to observe that it is impossible for any 
individual to perform the duties here required with- 
out being blessed to all the extent of blessing that he 
can enjoy. Our heavenly Father continually blesses 
his creatures on earth; and those creatures have 
nothing better to bestow in return than love towards 
God and their fellow-men. Here permit me also to 
say that the perfection of the law appears in another 
peculiar instance, namely, that it has no substitute. 
There is no substitute for obedience. Heaven never 
accepts of anything in room of this obedience. You 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



47 



cannot put it off, and settle your account with the 
law in any other way than by conforming to it. 
This is the nature of the law of love ; and it may, 
if you please, be simplified by what is perfectly within 
the capacity of common understanding. If the pa- 
rent love the child, there is nothing to be expected 
in return but love from the child to the parent. He 
might bring all the offerings and sacrifices in his 
ability to bestow, and spread them at his father's 
feet, and say, " Accept of these in room of my love 
and affection ; " and though the offering contained all 
the mines of the south, and all the riches of the 
Indies, it would be worth nothing in comparison with 
love. The father would say, "No, child; I love 
you in my heart ; the only return I can accept is 
that you love me." In the law of God the result 
is just the same. The principle is immutable. It 
has been proposed by erring man — (remember " to 
err is human," and we do not disparage his character 
when we say this), — it has been proposed by erring 
man, I say, that, finally, God will accept of some- 
thing in room of man's love; that something else 
will answer the same purpose. Now, what has been 
proposed as this substitute ? I am sorry I cannot 



48 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



show you a better than that I am about to mention. 
It is the worst that ever could have been thought 
of; but it has been thought of, and proposed to the 
people, It is to employ God himself — observe, to 
employ God himself — in the eternal work of tor- 
menting his creatures, in room of accepting their 
love to him. My friends, what sort of return is 
this? Let us look at it. Let us understand the 
nature of it. Why does God require us to love him ? 
The reason given at once is, " because he loves us." 
1 John 4: 10, 19. If we are enemies to any per- 
son, we do not wish that person to love us. But, if 
we love any person, we wish him to love us. Is not 
this natural ? If you love your child, in the room 
of that child's loving you, would you be satisfied to 
torment that child as far as lay in your power ? 
This is downright absurdity. Nothing can be more 
absurd. It is granted, on all hands, that the Cre- 
ator loves us, or he never would have required us to 
love him. If he loves us, he has no substitute for 
our love to him. Our disobedience, certainly, will 
not answer in room of love. Our being tormented 
is far from answering the purpose. " Why," says 
the hearer, " is not the law a penal law ? Does it 



PERFECTION 0E GOD'S LAW. 49 

not require the everlasting torment of those who 
disobey it ?" As plainly as the question is stated, 
so plainly we answer in the negative. My friends, 
it is direct absurdity and contradiction to say that 
the law of love requires the disobedient to be ever- 
lastingly tormented. What God requires of the 
disobedient is obedience, and that is all. " But does 
it not inflict punishment ? " says the hearer. " Does 
not this law subject the transgressor to punishment ? " 
Yes, it does. The proposition is essential to the 
doctrine ; but, bear in mind this one thing : that a 
God of infinite wisdom never would, and never could, 
consistently with this law, introduce a penalty calcu- 
lated to effectuate disobedience in the end ; for that 
would be to transgress his own law. The law is the 
law of love ; and that which would keep the creature 
from love would be an abolition of the law. This 
proves, to all intents and purposes, that if the law 
have a penalty inconsistent with itself, it would be 
an abolition of itself. To be plain about it : imagine, 
for a moment, that one single wretched individual, 
falling under the penalty of the law, is sent into a 
state of endless sin, to suffer to all eternity. I ask 
you, Does such a law operate like love ? No. What 
5 



50 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



is it, then ? It is enmity ; it is wrath ; it is unkind- 
ness. " Be not overcome of evil,' 5 says the scrip- 
ture, " but overcome evil with good." Bom, 12 : 21. 
Is this overcoming evil with good, making a creature 
suffer endless misery ? ISo. It is establishing the 
creature in endless sin, because he did not for a few 
moments love God, It is passing a decree that he 
shall never love God ! Can you affirm anything 
more contrary to the law of love ? No. But the 
law of love is perfect, as it administers its punish- 
ment to bring transgressors to obedience. That is 
the perfection of the law of God. You will find this 
to be the fact, by your observation and experience in 
society. For, if you deviate from this law of love, 
you will find disobedience and trouble so inseparably 
connected, that any deviation from the love of God, 
and from the love of mankind, operates to your dis- 
advantage. "What is this more than to tell us, the 
moment we disobey, " Child, you have done wrong ; 
you have gone astray frorn your felicity. There is 
but one way for you to regain that felicity, and that 
is to return to your duty. Love your God, and love 
your neighbor as yourself." You will find, also, 
that God never suffers one act of obedience to go 



PERFECTION OF GOD ? S LAW. 



51 



unrewarded, He always compensates obedience. It 
is sometimes the case in civil society, owing to the 
constitution of human nature, that we do not enjoy 
the reward of good works immediately ; but in 
moral government there is no possibility of such a 
mistake, because the soul that loves God enjoys the 
happy compensation in his own bosom. For there is 
no possibility of a man's loving God and his neighbor 
without enjoying happiness. Thus he is blessed. 
In this you will see the perfection of the law. It 
never suffers any deviation from it to pass with im- 
punity; but it administers all the chastisement 
which the nature of the case requires, in every 
degree in which it is disobeyed. 

Having taken notice of the perfection of the law, 
we will now consider the other quality of it. 

Our text says, " But whoso looketh into the per- 
fect law of liberty" You see, my friends, it is not 
only a u perfect" law, but a law of " liberty." Why 
is it "a law of liberty "? If you will not draw 
conclusions too hastily, but hear a few words on the 
subject, I will tell you. It is called the perfect law 
of liberty because it gives every person liberty to 
do just as he has a mind to do. I told you not to 



52 



PERFECTION OE GOD'S LAW. 



draw conclusions too hastily. I put the sentiment 
in these terms to assist your memory. It is the 
law of liberty ; for the subject enjoys the privilege 
of doing just as he pleases. But, " How is this ? " 
says the hearer. u Suppose I transgress the com- 
mandment, and suppose I will wrong my neighbor. 
I can put something into my coffers by taking it 
away from my fellow-creatures. I have a right to 
do this ! I think I have liberty." Is this the law ? 
Look at the law. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with 
all thy strength. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." Now, in order to know whether you have 
a right to do just as you please, in the first place 
begin by loving God and your neighbor, and then do 
what you please. 

If you love God,, it will be your pleasure to serve 
him ; and if you love your fellow-creature, it will 
wound you to harm him. This may be brought to 
the test of your feelings, In the circle where you 
find the companion of your bosom and your lovely 
children around you, you can do just as you please. 
The law there is " a law of perfect liberty ; " because 
you would please do nothing but good. Just so, 



PEETECTIOX 01 GOB'S LAW. 



53 



every lover of God, and every lover of mankind, who 
has uncontrolled liberty to do just as he pleases, 
never chooses to do anything dishonorable to his 
Maker, or injurious to his fellow-creatures : but he 
will do everything to contribute to the benefit and 
good of mankind. "What more liberty do you want ? 
"What is required of thee, 0 man, but - to do justly, 
to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God ;5 ? 
Let us observe that the man who looks into the 
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, " not 
being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, is 
blessed therein," blessed in his deed. 

In order to form a perfect idea on this subject, I 
propose to advert to what is generally preached in 
the Christian church, You are exhorted sometimes 
to be religious, and you are told that you will be 
rewarded in the next world. Though it be ever so 
hard, ever so irksome, to be virtuous, and though it 
be ever so disagreeable to lead a religious and holy 
life, it is better to do this than to live in ease, and 
plenty, and joy, and happiness, regaling ourselves 
with the luxuries of this life, and miss heaven at 
last. jIj hearers, this is an awful mistake. How 
it sinks the dignity, beauty and glory, of religion ! 
5^ 



54 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



Religion is " the bread of life " and " the water 
of life." Shall I tell you it is better to enjoy the 
frost of winter than the glory and comfort of the 
summer sun ? What sort of reasoning would it be, 
if I were to tell you that, for the sake of a reward in 
eternity, it is better for you to eat food ever so disa- 
greeable, than to live in all the enjoyments of plen- 
ty ? There is the water, the pure water of life. 
Must you receive it when it is disagreeable, because 
you will be rewarded hereafter ? "Whoever thought 
of a reward for eating food beyond the benefit of the 
thing itself ? These emblems of J esus Christ and 
his religion show that religion itself is peace. You 
will perceive, by the text, that " the hearer who 
looks at the perfect law of liberty, and continues 
therein, shall be blessed in his deed.''' What is the 
deed ? To love God, his Creator. And who, in all 
the world, in all the universe, would not be blessed 
in his deed, if he loved God ? If you love your 
neighbor, are you not blessed ? If you do not love 
God, are you not troubled ? if you hate your neigh- 
bor, are you not tormented ? And here is the per- 
fect law of liberty, into which, if you look and con- 
tinue therein, " not being forgetful hearers, but 



PERFECTION OF GOD 5 S LAW. 



55 



doers of the work, you shall be blessed in your 
deed." Blessing a hearer for doing his moral duty, 
as a compensation, besides the blessings he derives 
from acting right, is a subject which requires some 
animadversion. I will ask, what compensation can 
you expect ? "What compensation besides is possi- 
ble ? What other compensation can you receive, in 
the nature of things ? If we love God and our 
fellow-creatures, does not that compensate itself, and 
is not that a sufficient reward for the labor of our 
love ? WTiat can we expect in addition ? What 
would you have ? Something besides your love to 
God, and your love to man ! What is it ? Only 
a moment's reflection shows you that there cannot 
be any other recompense. What can be inflicted 
on the transgressor, in addition to the inconvenience 
resulting from his transgression ? What extra 
punishment can you lay upon him ? A moment's 
reflection will show you that there is not anything 
else in the universe. Sufficient unto man is the 
punishment of sin. You can add nothing to it. 

Now, permit me to ask you what compensation 
you ever thought of, for taking care of your own 
duties, for loving your family, for taking care of 



56 



PERFECTION OP GOD'S LAW. 



your children ? "O!" says the hearer, " I never 
thought of any, other than the blessing of loving rny 
family, and doing for them all that they needed." 
What is there that could compensate more than this 
enjoyment ? Nothing in the universe. There is 
no possibility of any other compensation, and no 
other exists in nature. Xo other is wanted. Will 
you say, "If I did not expect an eternity of blessing 
in another world, I would not love the companion 
of my bosom, I would not love my children, I 
would not love my fellow-creatures ; but I would do 
all the harm to my dearest friends that was possi- 
ble"? Can moral delirium extend to this? I know 
not whether you have ever heard of anything similar 
to what I am about to mention ; but, in my acquaint- 
ance with society, it has frequently been said to 
me (I will state no more than the truth, but I will 
do it impartially), by those who profess to be teach- 
ers of the Christian religion, that if they believed 
God would save all mankind, and render them ever- 
lastingly blessed, they would never obey any of the 
requirements of religion ; they would not read their 
Bible, they would never go to meeting, nor to any 
place of worship. I do not mention this to cast any 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



57 



reflections on sects or denominations. That is out 
of the question. I state it as the nature of the 
case, the nature of the principle. I will now inter- 
rogate these professors in this way : I will ask 
them first what is religion. They will agree that 
it is to love God and mankind. Love your God, 
and love your neighbor as yourself. Then, put all 
this together, and see the absurdity of their profes- 
sion ! Here the . professor comes forward, and claims 
to be religious ; that is, he professes to love God 
and to love his neighbor. Yes, and, under these 
circumstances, he tells God, " If I knew that thou 
wouldst do as well by my neighbor as by me, I 
never would have loved thee or my neighbor." 

Many of you are parents. Suppose your children 
come to you and say, " You ask us to love you. 
Well, we have done so. What reward will you 
give us for our love ?" " Why, children," say you, 
"if you love your parents, you have happiness." 
" Yes, we know that ; but it is hard to love those 
who do not conduct themselves properly. What are 
we to have more than our brothers and sisters ? " 
" Why," says the parent, " I love you all alike. I 
intend to do by you all alike." " Well," say these 



58 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



children, "if we had known that you were going to 
do by our brothers and sisters, who did not love you, 
as well as you do by us, we never would have loved 
you, — we never would have loved them." Here 
comes out the hypocrisy ! Here comes out the 
deceit ! Must we pretend to love God, and love 
our neighbor, and then say we never would do so, 
if we thought God would do as well by them as he 
does by us ? How long, my hearers, is man to be 
blind ? How long is he to be withheld from the 
perfect law of liberty ? How long is he to be with- 
held from continuing in it, and enjoying it ? What 
blessings every heart would enjoy, if it exercised 
love to God and man ! And how joyful would be 
the thought that the Author of our being will be 
the same to our fellow-creatures as to us ! This is 
all I want, this is all I pray for, all I expect. Do 
we not see that when one child who loves its parent 
comes with a request to that parent, it requests also 
for others, as well as itself? But what would you 
think of the child who would say, " Father, I want 
some food : but I cannot enjoy it, if you let others 
have food also, so well as I should if you would let 
them starve in my sight ; I should then relish it to 



perfection of god's law. 



59 



an extent that I never can enjoy if you let them 
have food also " ? " Why," says the hearer, " such 
a child ought to know the want of food, in order 
that he might pity those who were in the same situ- 
ation." My friendly hearers, is it not dishonorable 
to God, and degrading to man, to hold up such doc- 
trines, and call them by the name of divinity ? and, 
to crown the whole absurdity, call them this perfect 
law of liberty ? Does this exhibit the character 
and preaching and labors of our Lord J esus Christ ? 
No. The perfect law of liberty is the law of the 
spirit of love, which is in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
He loved his Father with all his heart ; he loved 
mankind as he loved himself ; and gave himself for 
us, that he might sanctify us by the washing of the 
Word. He was blessed in his deed ; and he says, 
" My meat and my drink is to do the will of him 
that sent me." And, if we are disciples of Jesus, 
it will be our meat and drink to do so likewise. 
We are not to love God to make him love us ; we 
are not to love our fellow- creatures to make God 
love us ; but it is our natural duty to love God 
because he first loved us, and our fellow-creatures 
because God loves them. This is so plain and man- 



60 



PERFECTION OF GOD'S LAW. 



ifest, that it is strange society has lived so long in 
darkness and ignorance. 

We are told sometimes that this doctrine leads to 
licentiousness. How is that possible ? How can 
we love God and man, and be licentious ? " But," 
says the hearer, " God is good to all, and will make 
all forever happy ; does not this furnish reason for 
indulgence in sin ? " Our blessed Saviour pointed 
out the universal benevolence of God in the sun and 
rain. " It hath been said unto you, by them of old 
time, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine 
enemy ; but I say unto you, love your enemies, do 
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that 
despitefully use you, that you may be the children 
of your Father who is in heaven, who causes his 
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
sendeth ram on the just and on the unjust" 

Moses says, "My doctrine shall drop like the 
rain, my speech shall distil as the dew ; as the small 
rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon 
the grass." These, my friends, are gospel emblems. 
Does this sun, does this rain, does this dew, preach 
a licentious doctrine ? Do they not preach loving 
kindness to all the earth ? Hear the gospel of God, 



PERFECTION OE GOD'S LAW, 61 

as preached by himself : " In blessing I will bless 
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee ; and 
in thee, and in thy seed, shall ALL nations be 
blessed." God blesses all. He sends us the heat 
of the sun ; he sends us genial rain ; and, as far as 
the dews fall, so far shall the gospel result in 
blessing the human family. And let each of us 
say, " If God loves me, I will imitate my Father in 
heaven ; and if the gospel embraces us all, let me 
do the same, and embrace my fellow-creatures in 
the affection of the soul ; and let me live in this 
religion, walk in this perfect law of liberty, and be 
blessed in my deeds." 

6 



SERMON IV. 



Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. — 
Isaiah 9 : 6. 

I "will attempt ? in the first place, to illustrate 
what is meant by this expression. 

" Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." 
It is a child that is born ; it is a son that is given. 
We first state the position, and then illustrate it. 
The meaning of the text is, that this child, this son, 
was born or given to the world of mankind for their 
benefit. All gifts are supposed to be for the benefit 
of those to whom they are made. 

The Messiah, who is the subject of this scripture, 
was born for the benefit of the world, was given for 
the benefit of mankind ; and thus justifies the form 
of expression, " unto us a child is born, unto us a 
son is given : ; ' that is, for our benefit. 

The illustration will be taken, in the first place, 
from some circumstances that have come within 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



63 



jour own observation, in the circle of your acquaint- 
ance in society. You have, perhaps, known a fam- 
ily that has seen good days, and enjoyed affluence, 
by some misfortune become reduced to poverty and 
want, and not able to retrieve their former condi- 
tion. It so happens, by the kind providence of God, 
that a little child, an infant, is born, who, when he 
is first given to the family, seems to be, as it were, 
an addition to their care and expense, and an 
increase to their wants ; but in a few years he 
expands in understanding, discovers a genius, powers 
of enterprise and faculties of industry, by which he 
becomes the promising hope of the family. In a 
little time longer, he enters into business; and 
evinces such prudence, such wisdom, and such appli- 
cation, that, in a short time, he retrieves the condi- 
tion of the family, rescues them, as it were, from 
distress and want^ and places them not only in a 
comfortable condition, but even in the elegancies of 
rank and fortune. 

It may well be said that this child was given to 
that family for a noble and beneficial purpose, and 
with the child a genius that accomplished all the 
salutary results. He redeems the family, if you 



64 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



will allow me the expression, from poverty, want 
and distress, and lifts them to a condition far from 
the calamities of want. I will take one illustration 
from the history of our com in on country ; and I 
hope the spirit and sensibility of my audience will 
support me in using it, When these states were 
colonies, but had grown to maturity of age and 
strength, rendering it proper that they should enjoy 
freedom and independence, that kind providence 
which had regarded their infant state still watched 
over them for good. Connected with this situation 
was a degree of prosperity that moved the envy of 
the mother country, which operated to induce her 
to pass parliamentary acts, justly viewed as acts of 
oppression, and calculated to disallow the privileges 
of freedom, and to fasten upon the colonies the 
chains of slavery to the latest generation. "While 
this was going on, that Being, whose all-seeing eye 
never closes, who never falls asleep, was nursing 
that person, whose name, no doubt, you delight to 
hear, and which I may pronounce in this place with- 
out offence, even the beloved Washington. God 
Almighty gave him to the colonies : and in that gift 
the genius of liberty, the doctrine of freedom, and 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



65 



tlie spirit of enterprise, that was sure to result in 
the emancipation of this country from the thraldom 
of tyranny ; and he established these states in the 
enjoyment of ail those rights and privileges, which 
cannot at this moment be enumerated, though you 
can duly appreciate them. This, then, was a gift 
sent for our preservation, by the great Giver of every 
good and perfect gift; and, when we contemplate 
the enjoyments with which we have been blessed in 
freedom and liberty, we can look up to our Father in 
heaven, and say, " God be thanked for this bless- 
ing." 

I will now invite your attention to a few histori- 
cal instances selected from scripture, by which this 
same subject may be illustrated. First, I will refer 
to the history of Joseph, taken by the rude hands 
of his brethren, who contemplated his total destruc- 
tion by death, but finally sold him a slave into the 
land of Egypt. Under the wisdom of Almighty 
God, however, he afterwards preserved them. How 
far beyond all human calculation does he extend his 
goodness, and through what unexpected mediums 
does he bless mankind ! Look on this son of J acob, 
when the rude hands of his brethren took him out 
6^ 



66 THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 

of the pit where they had cast him, and sold him to 
strangers travelling to Gilead, and bade him an ever- 
lasting farewell, hoping that they never should see 
his face any more. From this very moment God 
Almighty was moving on in his design, to send 
Joseph before them into Egypt, to be their saviour, 
when they should come there themselves. They 
cruelly took the coat of Joseph and dipped it in the 
blood of a kid, and carried it to their father, in 
order that he might conclude, in all probability, that 
Joseph had been torn in pieces by the wild beasts. 
When the father looked upon the coat and recog- 
nized it, how was his heart agonized, and with what 
sorrow did he bemoan the loss of his favorite son! 
At the same time was God Almighty giving this fam- 
ily J oseph in the land of Egypt, that, when the time 
should come when they would be there in want and 
distress, he should be there before them to save their 
lives. And what did this result in ? In the tem- 
poral salvation of all the family. And all the 
unkindness of Simeon and his brethren was not 
remembered with condemnation, when Joseph com- 
municated to the family his bounty and favor, 
Once more let us refer to the Scriptures. When 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



67 



the King of Egypt persecuted the Israelites, and, 
with an edict marked by cruelty, which reached the 
heart of every family, commanded that every male 
child which was born among them should be put to 
death, God was pleased to give to this people a son : 
" And to them a child was born, to them a son 
was given." It was Moses. It was three months 
nursed in secret by its mother, and kept from the 
observing and vigilant officers of the crown ; but 
danger and fear would not permit the mother any 
longer to keep it, and she committed it to the provi- 
dence of God. Carefully she wrapped it up ; and, 
having placed it in a little bark, deposited it on the 
margin of the Nile. She sent Miriam, its little sis- 
ter, at that time but three or four years of age, to 
watch the child, and see what became of it. I name 
these small circumstances because they are import- 
ant ; for, if a strong wind had sprung up, the child 
would have been swept away ; or, if a crocodile had 
got his eye upon it, it would have been swallowed 
up ; but the all-seeing eye of Providence was upon 
the child. It was a son given to the house of 
Israel. The little sister watched over the child, and 
at length Pharaoh's daughter came ; and when she 



63 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



came there she heard a voice ; and when she 
had discovered the child, pity and compassion moved 
her heart towards it. She approached and took it 
np, and then was the time for its little sister to 
speak. — " Shall I go and call a nurse ? ?; This 
was agreed to at once : and Miriam went and called 
her mother — the mother of Moses. A very good 
nurse, to be sure ; but mark the wisdom and economy 
of Providence in all this. The mother was directed 
to nurse it for Pharaoh's daughter : and when he was 
sufficiently nursed, he was brought up in the court of 
Egypt ; he was taught in all the learning of the 
court, which prepared him as a suitable person to per- 
form the great exploits he afterwards did perform. 
He drew the house of Israel out of the iron furnace, 
and carried them, by the miracle of God, across the 
Red Sea : and there they raised songs of praise to 
their Father in heaven, while Miriam, his sister, 
and Aaron, his brother, went forth in the dance ! 

These instances, selected from the history of our 
country and from scripture, serve as illustrations of 
the form of expression. M He was born to us, he 
was given to us," — that is, for our benefit; and so 
was J esus given for the benefit of the world. The 



THE GITT 01 A SAVIOUR. 



69 



Scriptures inform us that ;i God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son for it.*' God so 
loved the Hebrews that he gave them Moses ; and 
this Moses says. " A prophet shall the Lord your 
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto 
me; him shall ye hear." God gave to the house of 
Israel Joseph, to be their saviour, their deliverer, 
when they were in trouble and distress. And give 
me leave to make one reflection upon this, — one 
instructive reflection, — that the wickedness of J o- 
seph's brothers never operated as a barrier against 
his mercy and kindness to them : they were all 
made to share his bounty, — they were all made to 
reap of the crop he had sown \ and here is a beauti- 
ful emblem of the divine character of Jesus. 
" While we were yet the enemies of Christ, he died 
for us;" while we were yet his enemies, he con- 
templated our salvation; while we were yet his 
enemies, he was acting the part of our Saviour ! My 
friendly hearers, though sin be heinous, though it be 
an object of such just hatred that every soul ought 
to abhor it, yet we ought by no means to think that 
it can change the mind of our unchangeable Father 
in heaven. ~VTe can never say to the grace of the 



70 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



Redeemer, " Thy ways have proceeded thus far ; 
hitherto shalt thou come, and here thy proud waves 
shall be stayed." " For where sin aboundeth, grace 
doth much more abound;" and I ask you, in the 
case of J oseph's brothers, though their sin was red 
as crimson, did not grace much more abound ? Did 
not his grace and favor break down the stubbornness 
of their hearts ; and did not he receive them, and say 
to them, "I am Joseph, thy brother ; grieve not 
yourselves that you did it, that you sold me hither : 
ye thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto 
good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save 
much people alive " ? 

Now I ask you to consider this all-important 
question, namely, for what purpose did God give his 
Son Jesus to the world ? I shall not detain you long 
on this subject ; yet I have a design to notice the 
object which some say God had in giving his Son to 
the world, and to say something as to what I think 
was the true object. I am apprehensive — I am 
perfectly satisfied — that there have been doctrines 
entertained in the Christian church which are not 
tenable; and I will say but little more on those 
points than barely to bring them before you. It is 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



71 



taught by doctors of divinity that Jesus came into 
the world to reconcile an angry God — an angry 
God to the world ; and they say, in so many words, 
that he came to open a way whereby we might get 
to God. Now, you will easily see that this is not 
true, and that it cannot be true. You will easily 
see that, if there were anything in the way of God's 
being gracious to us, he would not send his Son as 
our Saviour ; for the act of giving us Christ was an 
act of love. " God so loved the world , that he gave 
his only begotten Son for it." John 3 : 16. If a 
parent love a child so well as to give him something, 
he does not bestow that gift to reconcile himself to 
the child, but he may to reconcile the child to himself. 
To suppose that he gave it to reconcile himself to 
the child, is contrary to nature, reason, and common 
sense. And how is it possible, if God is the enemy 
of mankind, that he should give us his Son as our 
Saviour ? 

Again, it is represented that Christ came into the 
world to suffer and die for us, instead of us ; and 
that God held out a flaming sword to destroy "his 
people for their iniquity, but J esus interposed be- 
tween us and an angry God, to suffer for us. What 



72 



THE GIFT OP A SAVI0UB. 



sort of a doctrine is this ? Did God raise a naming 
sword against us ? and did J esus interpose between 
us and the sword, to suffer for us ? If this be so, 
does it not show that J esus was more gracious to us 
than the Father ? Yes, and there lies the error. 
Now, this doctrine is not true. He did not come 
into the world to suffer the penalty of the law, 
instead of us. If so, we could sin without suffering; 
but who can do this ? What sin can you commit, 
without suffering a corresponding evil from it? 
Does not our Father in heaven say he will reward 
every one according to his works? and does not 
Jesus say, " render to every man according to his 
works " ? Matt, 16 : 27. He did not come into 
the world that we might not suffer if we commit sin. 
Sin and misery are connected in the nature of 
things ; and if we sin, we must suffer for it. Says 
the hearer, " You will not deny that Christ bore our 
sins." I know the scripture says he bore our sins, 
and it is true. But these things explain themselves. 
When Christ healed the sick, was he made sick 
instead of the sick man ? No, he was not made 
sick. That is what is meant by his bearing the 
sickness. He took away the sins of the people, but 



THE GIET OF A SAVIOUR. 



73 



he was net a sinner ; he bore the sickness of those 
whom he healed, but he was not sick in their stead. 
A physician bears away the sickness of the patient, 
but he does not become sick in his stead. And 
Jesus says "that the whole need not a physician, 
but they that are sick," speaking of transgressors. 

It is believed in the Christian church, and has 
been for a long time taught, that our blessed Saviour 
came into this world to save us from going to hell ; 
and it is necessary that we look at the view the 
Orthodox have of this hell. They hold that it is a 
wretched, awful place, where the wicked suffer to 
all eternity. Do we read anything of this in scrip- 
ture? No, nothing at all. Can we believe that 
the anger of the Divine Being has prepared such a 
place as our brethren the clergy talk about, for the 
purpose of tormenting his creatures ? Would the 
same God send his Son into the world to prevent 
our going into this place? That is building up 
with one hand, and pulling down with the other. 
No, my hearers, it is more like the craft of man 
than the wisdom of God ! The Scriptures know 
nothing about such salvation. Jesus was sent into 
the world to be our Saviour; and the Scriptures 
7 



74 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



explain this. God says to Joseph, speaking of the 
child Jesus, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for 
he shall save his people from their sins." Mark 
the distinction between their being saved from sm, 
and saved from punishment if they committed sin. 
Has not God ordained that the wicked shall suffer 
for their sin ? Are not our laws in existence for 
this purpose ? Do we not see that the penal laws 
of the country sentence some to die on the gallows 
for their sin, while some for their wickedness are 
shut up in the penitentiary, and no one can lead a 
life of wickedness without being wretched and 
disgraced ? Will you say God does not punish sin 
where sin is ? The wrath of God is revealed— 
that is to say, will some time or other be revealed — 
against all the wickedness and unrighteousness of 
man. It is revealed ; and we know, by experience, 
by observation, and by history, that sin has made 
this world miserable ; and it is recorded in scripture 
that " the righteous shall be recompensed in the 
earth, much more the wicked and the sinner." 
Prov. 11 : 31. This shows that punishment for sin 
does exist ; and here observe that Jesus did not 
some mio the world to save us from the miserable 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



75 



consequences of folly, if we will transgress ; but he 
came with the noble and glorious design of effecting 
our salvation from being sinners. You may take 
a criminal who has committed an offence, who has 
been detected in it, and who has been convicted 
of it, — you cannot save this transgressor of the 
law from punishment, — that is, lawfully. But if 
you save him by any mean's from being a trans- 
gressor, — say a thief, — if you prevent him from 
committing theft, you have wrought his salvation, 
and you have done a thing worthy of yourselves, and 
worthy of being approbated by the law ; and all 
that God gave us the ministry of Christ for was 
the purpose, of reconciling the world to himself, not 
himself to the world. My brethren, you will then 
perceive that the work and nature of reconciliation 
result in this, — to make a sinful world a righteous 
world; and therefore it is said by the prophet, 
" He shall finish sin and make an end of transgres- 
sion," Dan. 10 : 24; and Christ says, " Repent, for 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When he 
preached the doctrine of repentance to his disciples, 
he says, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand." And now mark the language made use of 



76 THE GIFT 0? A SAVIOUR. 

by our Saviour to recommend repentance — "The 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." A sinner can no 
more be saved without repentance, than a sick man 
can be healed and have his fever left upon him. 
""Well, then," says the hearer, "is there any cer- 
tainty that this glorious work of salvation, for which 
Christ came, will be ever effected ? " My friendly 
hearers, when we contemplate the great undertaker 
of this work, and know that our heavenly Father 
sent his Son for the express purpose of saving 
mankind from sin, we have no reason to doubt the 
accomplishment of it. If it had been the under- 
taking of man, it might have failed ; but if it be 
the undertaking of God, it cannot fail. It certainly 
will be carried into effect; and all the powers of 
heaven and earth were given into the hands of the 
Son, for the glory and honor of the Father. You 
will grant that God Almighty made the natural sun 
to rule the day. It does so. He made the moon 
to rule the night. It does so ; and no philosopher 
or astronomer could discover that they were made 
for any other purpose than that which they answer. 
Then will any person be so bold as to say that 
when the Son of God was sent into the world to 



THE (HFT OF A SATIOCTl. 



77 



save the world from sin, his coming does not, and 
will not, answer that purpose ? This would be rea- 
soning contrary to all reason, and drawing conclu- 
sions contrary to all fair rules. 

Jesus was given to the world for this purpose, 
namely, to effect the salvation of the world from sin. 
He was given to the world to manifest God's 
love to the world. He was given to the world that 
by his suffering he might fulfil all the prophecies 
recorded in the Old Testament ; — to remove that 
legal dispensation which operated as a wall of parti- 
tion between Jew and Gentile ; so of the twain — 
that is, Jew and Gentile — to make one new man, 
so making peace : and to preach the doctrine of 
Christianity, and to fix it on a rock, that the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it. He was sent into 
the world to suffer patiently, that so he might set 
an example to his disciples. He was sent into the 
world that, through his death and glorious resurrec- 
tion, we might be introduced into eternal life and 
immortality. Xot to constitute the doctrine of 
immortality, — not to make it a truth : it was 
always a glorious truth, and he came to introduce 
believers to the sweet consolation of eternal life and 
7* 



78 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUil. 



immortal blessedness. This is the character of the 
Son of God, that was born to us, that was given 
to ns. 

And, in order that we may close this discourse in 
a proper manner, let us contemplate how God has 
blessed us. He has given us the natural sun to 
enlighten and warm us ; and we ought to enjoy this 
blessing in a manner honorable to God, as well as 
to the benefit of ourselves. He has given us the 
earth, that we might cultivate it, and increase the 
fruits of it in a manner useful and honorable to 
ourselves. He has given us friends, that we might 
treat them in such a way as to improve ourselves 
and them ; and he has given us his dear Son, to be 
a light to lighten the Gentiles. "It is a light 
thing," says God by the mouth of his prophet, "that 
thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes 
of Jacob, and restore the preserved of Israel ; I will 
also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou 
may est be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." 
Isaiah 49 : 6. 

This is the language of the Saviour's invitations : 
" If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. 
Come UDto me, all ye that labor and are heavy- 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



79 



laden, raid I will give you rest ; take my yoke upon 
you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For 
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matt. 
11: 28—30. 

And, again, in the context, " His name shall be 
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, 
The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.^ 
Of the increase of his government and peace there 
shall be no end." This is recorded of the Messiah ; 
this is also the true character of Jesus. In him 
you have the doctrine of the Father : love to God, 
and love to mankind, — mercy, peace, pardon and 
forgiveness, to every transgressor. We cannot be 
his disciples without suffering losses and crosses for 
his honor. A great many people, my hearers, 
may be convinced of the truth of the sentiments 
that have been taught to them, and yet, notwith- 
standing, may reject the true Christian doctrine ; 
but what does Christ say on this subject ? " He 
that is ashamed of me, and of my words, in this 
sinful and adulterous generation, of him will the 



* See Note A. 



80 



THE GIFT OF A SAVIOUR. 



Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in the 
glory of his Father, and of the holy angels." 

And this was wonderfully fulfilled in the genera- 
tion in which our Saviour was on earth ; for they 
rejected him, and were miserably destroyed by the 
Romans, and wasted among the nations of the earth ; 
and similar calamities must ever await those who 
rebel against the wisdom and authority of God. 
Let us improve, then, by this blessed gift of God ; 
and let us improve in imitating the character and 
following the doctrine of our blessed Saviour ; let 
us embrace him in spirit, in truth, and in love, to 
his honor and to his glory, and it will certainly 
result in our own felicity and benefit. 



SERMON V. 



Then will i teach transgressors thy ways , akd 

SINNERS SHALL BE CONVERTED UNTO THEE. Psalm 

51 : 13. 

You will perceive, by the first words of this pas- 
sage, the writer signifies that there was some pre- 
paration necessary for him, in order to fit him for 
the work mentioned, namely,' to teach transgressors 
the ways of God. " Then will I teach transgress- 
ors thy ways." This was an indication that the 
writer himself was unfit, in his then present situa- 
tion, to teach transgressors the ways of God ; but, 
if something was performed for him by way of pre- 
paration, he could enter upon this work. You will 
be good enough, my friends, to direct your atten- 
tion carefully to that preparation which was neces- 
sary in order to prepare the author of the text 
for this work. This question is answered in the 



82 OX TEACHING THE WAYS OE GOD TO MEN. 

context. He acknowledges before God his sins and 
transgressions, and he uses a variety of phrases to 
signify the baseness of the moral character which he 
had formed. He then proceeds in a prayer to God 
that these transgressions, this iniquity, these sins, 
might be removed ; and the words which he makes 
use of are such as follow : " wash," " purge," 
" cleanse ; " he prays that he may be washed from 
his sins; and when this work is done, when he is 
washed from his sins, when he is purged from his 
iniquities, then, he says, " will I teach trans- 
gressors thy ways." He would be prepared by 
such a process. Without this process, he was unpre- 
pared for such an employment. 

The next subject to which I wish you to give 
your attention is the ways of God. " Then will I 
teach transgressors thy ways " A man cannot 
teach to others the ways of God until he knows 
those ways himself. A man cannot teach to others 
what he himself is not acquainted with. The 
prophet here prays that he may be washed, cleansed 
and purged, from all his sins and transgressions, so 
that he may teach God's ways to the transgressor. 
1 wish to have you carefully attend to what is to bo 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OE GOD TO MEN. 83 

taught. The ways of God are to be taught. Now, 
my friends, keep your thoughts directly to the text, 
and observe this question, — What did the prophet 
mean by the ways of God which he would teach to 
transgressors ? There is no doubt that he meant 
this, namely, that he would teach his ways in puri- 
fying and cleansing the transgressor from sin ; for 
he had just prayed that this work might be done 
for himself, and when done for him, he then would 
(as he says to God) teach the transgressor " thy 
ways." "Thy ways" in what? Thy ivays in 
purifying arid cleansing sinners and transgressors 
from sin and transgression. This idea may be 
represented by the following simile. A man who is 
sick might say to a physician, " Physician, remove 
my infirmities, cure me of these painful disorders 
which rack my system, mitigate these pains with 
which I am tormented, restore health to me, and 
then will I teach other people, troubled with my 
disorder, how to be recovered from their complaints, 
how to be cured of their disease, and how they may 
be restored to health." I will now bring you an 
example from the Scriptures. You all recollect the 
account of Saul of Tarsus ; afterwards Paul the 



84 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 

apostle to the Gentiles. Previously to his conver- 
sion, he was enraged with madness and passion 
against the name of Christ and his followers. He 
was employed in persecuting the saints, and in 
pursuing, with all the authority of the High Priest 
of Jerusalem, a scheme of oppression and persecu- 
tion against all that called on the name of Jesus. 
In his own honest confession, he reports himself to 
have been one of the basest of sinners, exceedingly 
mad against Christianity ; and he confessed that he 
had done things against the name of Jesus. Now, 
this man, by the grace of God, and of Jesus Christ, 
was converted to Christianity, and embraced that 
faith which he had endeavored to destroy. He was 
made a willing agent in the ministry of the gospel 
of eternal life, and went and discharged his duty in 
proclaiming that gospel of Christ to the Gentiles. 
Permit me to observe, as an example laid down in 
my text and context, that here was a sinner cleansed 
from his sins and converted to God. He felt the 
blessing of divine grace and mercy ; and this enabled 
him to teach others, in the same manner, the same 
doctrine, the same love, the same pardon, which he 
himself had received, and had been exercised with. 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OE GOD TO MEN. 85 

You will perceive it would have been utterly im- 
practicable for him previously to have taught trans- 
gressors the ways of God, for he did not know them 
himself. He could not be the agent of God in con- 
verting sinners, that is, to God ; for he himself was 
not thus converted ; but, all this being done for him, 
he was enabled to assist others in bringing them to 
the knowledge of that grace which he himself had 
obtained. "What he had to do was very easy. He 
had nothing to do, nothing to teach, nothing to 
preach, but what he had been instructed in himself, 
what he had been taught ; and when he had been 
instructed in the gospel of pardoning mercy, in the 
gospel of redeeming grace, in the doctrine of salva- 
tion by Jesus Christ, and after he himself had 
become a subject of this pardoning mercy and 
forgiving grace, how would it answer for him to 
have thundered out the wrath of an imaginary god ? 
How different is this preaching from our experience ! 
There we see the evil trangressor, the evil opposer 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtaining mercy of God 
and forgiveness of his sins ; and would it have done 
for him to have preached everlasting condemnation 
to the persons around him ? Nothing could be more 
8 



86 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 

discordant to the nature of the thing ; yet how often 

r 

do we hear people preach in this waj ! " God hath 
made us able ministers of the New Testament, not 
of the letter, but of the spirit." Why not of the 
letter ? " Because the letter killeth ; but the 
spirit giveth life." 

Paul was not a minister of death. Why not ? 
Because he had not received death. He had re- 
ceived life from the Lord J esus, and this was all he 
preached. He had received pardon, and this was 
all he had to preach. He had been cleansed from 
his sins by the grace of the gospel. This is what 
he had to preach to others ; and this is expressed 
by David. When God had washed him of his sins, 
cleansed him of his transgressions, and had blotted 
out his iniquities, then he could teach transgressors 
the ways of God, and redeem them from death by 
washing them from their sin and transgression. 

The next thing to which I will invite the atten- 
tion of the audience is, what is implied by the 
word " teach." " Then will I teach transgressors 
thy ways." Here, my friends, I mean to take 
advantage of the power given me in these words, to 
correct what has been the general error in the 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 87 

Christian church. For this is a part of the duty 
and labor of your humble servant, — to correct, as 
far as possible, certain injurious errors, that have 
existed in the Christian church. But error is to be 
corrected by authority; and I will correct it by 
the authority of the gospel. I wish to explain the 
common error that has existed with respect to the 
word " teach." I will endeavor to do it so as to be 
understood. It is a general sentiment of the Chris- 
tian church, which is held by all those who are 
called " orthodox," that the natural state of man is 
a state of entire and total depravity, in which he 
possesses nothing that has the least merit ; that he 
is opposed to all that is good, — naturally so, — and 
inclined to all evil ; so that it is impossible for 
man, in this natural state, to do anything that is 
well pleasing to God, but that he stands in need 
of a radical change of nature, which is called a 
change from nature to grace. The sentiment sup- 
poses the very nature of man is bad ; that he must 
be changed from that state of nature, and become a 
new creature, by a new creation, in order to inherit 
the salvation of the gospel. Now, if this doctrine 
were true, the word " teach" would have no mean- 



88 ON TEACHING THE WAY3 OF GOD TO MEN. 

ing at all. Why not ? Because, in teaching, we 
give to those who are taught no new faculty, no 
new power, no new ability ; but we, by teaching, 
operate only upon the natural faculties, powers and 
minds, of those taught. When you send your child 
to school to learn any science, you do not sup- 
pose that the schoolmaster has, in the first place, 
to change your child from a state of nature to 
some other state, by which he learns this science ? 
No. So far from this, you expect that when your 
child goes to school, he carries all the natural pow- 
ers which are necessary. And it is only an opera- 
tion performed on the abilities, and on the natural 
understanding, that brings this child from a state of 
ignorance to a state of knowledge, — to the knowledge 
of that which he is to learn ; and this is what is 
meant by teaching. " Then will I teach transgress- 
ors thy ways." To teach a transgressor, is not to 
change him in relation to his nature ; but it is to 
inform him, to instruct him, to bring the powers 
and faculties of his mind into action, on the subject 
in which he was before uninstructed. 

You will permit me here to observe, that if the 
work of a radical change were necessary, to talk of 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 89 

teaching transgressors would be conversation without 
meaning. But, according to the text, transgressors 
possess all the natural powers, all the abilities, which 
it is necessary for them to possess ; they have noth- 
ing in themselves but what is good in its nature ; 
they have nothing but what, in itself and as to its 
nature, is right, and just as it should be. All that 
is necessary for them is to be rightly informed, 
rightly instructed, 

Having advanced so far, we will go a little fur- 
ther in this subject. My friends, it is of importance 
that we understand that there is no power, no abil- 
ity,, no nature in man, but what is good. It is as 
good as it ought to be ; and, to say that the nature 
of man is bad, is to look directly up to our Maker, 
and accuse him of having done all the evil mankind 
have done. It is the wrong use of our ability that 
is the cause of all the wrong we are guilty of ; not 
the ability itself that is wrong. There is no power, 
there is no ability, there is not a passion, there is 
not an appetite, there is not an inclination, that is 
bad in itself ; nor one, my hearers, that we could do 
so well without as with. All that is necessary is 
that they should be rightly employed, that they 
8* 



90 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OE GOD TO MEN. 

should be governed with, propriety, that we should 
do with them according to the dictates of wisdom, 
of prudence, and understanding. Do this, and all 
is right. I have given the hint already, and I wish 
to improve it a little, that it is an injurious error 
for people to believe that they have not the power to 
do right. What an awful condition must that person 
be in who believes that he has not the power to do 
right ! What an awful situation would society be 
in, were your little children caused to believe that 
they could not obey you! — that they could do no 
one thing that was pleasing to you ! Could they 
be placed in a situation more dreadful to themselves, 
or more opposed to your own feelings ? How could 
you look upon them, and believe they were of such 
a temper and disposition ; and that they were so 
constituted in nature that it was impossible for 
them to please you, do what they would 4 No situa- 
tion of mind can possibly be more disagreeable than 
this, nor be attended with more disagreeable conse- 
quences. And if we teach men that they can do 
nothing to please God, I ask you will they try to 
please him ? Hence the necessity of having correct 
views. Hence the necessity of being taught on this 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 91 

subject — of knowing well that what is required of 
us is to use our abilities in the way that wisdom 
dictates, and all will be well pleasing to God. 

I am anxious to illustrate the doctrine I have laid 
down in the very language of the gospel. This 
language will satisfactorily prove to you that no 
change of nature is necessary for the sinner. I 
say no change of nature. Why? Because the 
language speaks for itself, and it is language that 
indicates no such thing. For instance, take the lan- 
guage of David now before us. What change in 
nature does he pray for ? Does he pray to get 
changed in nature ? No. What does he pray for ? 
He prays God to wash him. He says, wash me ; 
purge me, cleanse me. Now, what does this lan- 
guage signify ? No change in nature. Washing does 
not change the nature of the thing washed ; it only 
makes that clean which was before unclean. The 
nature of the thing is the same as it was before. 
The only difference is that the filthiness is removed, 
the uncleanness is taken away, by the process of 
washing. This is all David prays for. 

I will prove this position again, by going into the 
New Testament. The gospel represents the salva- 



92 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 

tion of a sinner, in the words of our blessed Saviour 
himself, by such similes as follow : " Which of 
you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one, doth not 
leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go 
after that which is lost ; and when he finds it, takes 
it on his shoulder, rejoicing ; and when he cometh 
home, calleth together his friends and neighbors, and 
bids them rejoice ; for he hath found the sheep 
which was lost." Here is the representation of the 
salvation of sinners. The sheep, before it went 
away, was, of course, a sheep. After it had gone 
away, it was the same creature. It was a sheep 
when it was found ; and when carried home it was 
a sheep. Did the sheep become a wolf or a tiger 
by going away ? No. It remained a sheep after 
it was gone ; and, when it was found and returned, 
it was still a sheep, as before. My friends, what 
alteration of nature is there in all this process ? The 
wanderer is brought back to the place from whence 
it went, and is restored to the flock ; which is all 
the change there was, and all that was necessary. 
There was no change whatever in the nature of the 
animal. 

The next parable on the same subject is, " Or 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 93 

what woman, Raving ten pieces of silver, if she lose 
one, will not light a candle, and search her house 
diligently until she find it ; and when she has found 
it, calleth her friends, and rejoieeth." That was 
silver before it was lost ; it was silver when it was 
found ; and it was silver when it was restored to the 
other nine pieces. Possibly it might have dropped 
in the street, and filth might have adhered to it ; — 
there would be no difficulty in rendering it clean 
again, but there was no necessity for changing 
the metal. It was good before it was lost ; it was 
good when it was lost ; it was good when it was 
found ; it was good when it was restored. All the 
change that has taken place is a change of situation 
or condition. There is no change in the nature. 

Immediately following this is the memorable par- 
able of the prodigal. "A certain man had two 
sons ; and the younger of them said to his father, 
Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to 
me. And he divided unto them his living. And 
not many days after, the younger son gathered all 
together, and took his journey into a far country, 
and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty 



94 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 

famine in that land ; and he began to be in want. 
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that 
country ; and he sent him into his fields to feed 
swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with 
the husks that the swine did eat ; and no man gave 
unto him. And when he came to himself, he said,'* 
&c. It seems he had been wandering in a kind of 
delirium. " He came to himself and the moment 
he came to himself he remembered how many hired 
servants his father had, " who had bread enough, 
and to spare ; while he was perishing with hunger." 
He therefore forms this resolution : "I will arise 
and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, 
I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and 
am no more worthy to be thy son ; make me as one 
of thy hired servants." No sooner was the reso- 
lution formed, than it was executed. It was formed 
on his coming to himself. He went towards his 
father's house ; and his father saw him a great way 
off, and knew him, and had compassion on him, 
and ran to meet him. He heard his confession, but 
he replied in no way to the confession. He gave 
command immediately, " Bring the best robe and put 
it on him ; put shoes on his feet, and my ring upon 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 95 

his finger ; kill the fatted calf, and let there be 
music and dancing." Now, what change of nature 
was there in this case ? This was a son before he 
went away. Was he not a son before he went 
away ? Yes. When he came to himself, was there 
any change in his nature ? No. When he formed 
the resolution to go home, there was a change of 
mind, view, thought, or idea ; but there was no 
change of nature. And as it is said that man lost 
the image of God by transgression, let me ask, is 
there any indication of it here ? This son did not 
lose the image of his family by going abroad ; for it 
seems the father knew him a great way off. He was 
then the image of the father, the same as when he 
went away. The father saw his son's eyes, heard his 
own voice, thought of his son, and had compassion 
on him ; he did everything that was necessary for 
him ; and when the father was complained of by the 
elder brother for receiving him in this kind and 
affectionate manner, his answer is most admirable. 
" It was meet that we should make merry and be 
glad ; for this thy brother was dead and is alive, was 
lost and is found." Is there any change of nature, 
my hearers, represented by this parable ? None ; 



96 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 



nothing is represented but a change of condition, a 
change of situation, a change of circumstances. 

Now, will you listen to the words of God by the 
prophet ? Speaking of the vilest of sinners, he says, 
" Wash you, make yoa clean." Does this change the 
nature ? " Wash you, make you clean, put away the 
evil of your doings from before my eyes." " Cease to 
do evil, and learn to do well." This is learning, and 
the best of learning. " Then will I teach transgress- 
ors thy ways, and sinners will be converted unto 
thee." " Then will I pour clean water upon you, and 
ye shall be clean." The apostle Paul makes use of 
an expression which ought to be remembered : 
" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved 
the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, 
by washing of water with the word." Again, what 
is recorded in the Eevelations ? " Unto him that 
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
blood." My friends, washing never signifies chang- 
ing the nature of the thing washed, but it signifies 
cleansing the thing that is unclean. 

Again : " And I will send the messenger of the 
covenant , whom ye delight in. But who may abide 
the day of his coming ? for he is like a refiner's fire. 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 97 

and like fuller's soap.' 3 Now, what does a refiner's 
fire do ? Does it change the nature of the metal ? 
No. It separates the dross from the metal. And 
what does the fuller's soap do ? Does it change the 
nature of the thing to which it is applied ? No. 
Such language is the current language of divine 
inspiration. And in not one of these passages is 
there a word said about changing the nature of the 
being ; but only changing the condition and circum- 
stances of it. 

I ask your attention, my friends, in the third 
place, to the concluding words of the text, " And 
sinners shall be converted unto thee." Now, I ask 
you what is meant here by " conversion " ? What 
is generally believed is what I have already noticed ; 
that is, a change of nature, — not a change of 
state, not merely information, not instruction, but a 
radical change of nature. I will bring you several 
passages where this word is used. At a certain 
time the disciples wished to know " who should be 
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus calls 
to him a little child, and sets this little child in the 
midst, and says, Unless you be converted and become 
as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
9 



98 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 

of heaven." Now, little children are certainly in a 
state of simple nature ; and if the disciples were con- 
verted and brought back into the state of simple 
nature, they would be fit to enter the kingdom of 
heaven. And our Saviour gives another testimony 
of this ; for he says directly, with respect to little 
children, " For of such are the kingdom of heaven." 
If little children were totally depraved, would it be 
necessary for older people to become converted into 
their state, — that is, into a state of total depravity, 
— to enter into the kingdom of God ? The mean- 
ing might be, that if the hearts of men were brought 
back to the state of little children, then they would 
be fit for the kingdom of heaven ; and that mean- 
ing would be just right, just what every rational 
being would naturally suppose. 

Another place where the word " converted " is 
used is where our blessed Saviour spoke to Peter : 
" When thou art converted, strengthen thy breth- 
ren." Now, " conversion " there could not be a 
change of nature ; for Peter had experienced what 
the New Testament calls " regeneration" before 
that. Once more, from the apostle James : 

fi Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, 



ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 99 

and one convert him, let him know that he which 
eonverteth the sinner from the error of his way shall 
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude 
of sins." Now, observe the apostle says, " If any 
of you do err from the truth, and one convert him." 
A man cannot err from the truth, unless he is in it ; 
and when in it, if he errs from it, he may be con- 
verted to truth, — " then let him know that he 
that eonverteth the sinner has saved his soul from 
death." Observe, one who has been in the truth and 
has erred from it may stand in need of truth, — 
may stand in need of conversion ; but, being restored 
to truth again, what does this do ? Why, it saves 
his soul from death ; that is, the death of sin. 

My brethren, to improve our subject to advan- 
tage, let us all remember that we are by nature such 
beings as God would have us ; and that all the sin 
that attaches to us results from the misapplication 
of the abilities and faculties that God gave us. I 
would encourage you in this, because I would not 
have natural society so much disgraced as to have 
it supposed that mankind, while blessed with reason 
and understanding, though in a state of simple 
nature, are not able to do right. If this error is 



100 ON TEACHING THE WAYS OF GOD TO MEN. 

removed from jour minds, what is to prevent you 
from following the religion of Jesus? But how 
awful is it to believe that we are all by nature 
opposed to God, and God to us ; and that we are 
incapacitated to do the will of our heavenly Father. 
It would be as wrong to say this, as for me to come 
into your families and teach your children that it 
was not in their power to do your pleasure ; as if I 
should tell your little ones, " Children, you are in 
an awful situation ! It is not in your power to do 
one thing to please your parents, unless you are 
made over again ! Your parents are full of wrath 
and vengeance ; and, if they find you in your present 
condition, they will destroy you in a moment." 0, 
horrible ! It would be beyond description horrible ! 
It is doubly horrible to teach the great family of 
mankind that we never can do anything to please 
our Father in heaven. And, my hearers, I beseech 
you to banish from your thoughts such a belief, from 
the present moment ; and always remember that all 
God requires of you is, " To deal justly, love mercy, 
and to walk humbly before him." 



SERMON VI. 



And might perfect that which is lacking m your 
faith. — 1 Thessalonians 3 : 10. 

The apostle expressed a fervent desire to be 
present -with his brethren, to whom he wrote this 
epistle, that he might perform this kind office for 
them, namely, to perfect what was lacking in their 
faith. Our text supposes that those to whom he 
wrote had received the true faith of the gospel ; but, 
at the same time, that they had not the benefit of 
this faith in its perfection. They had attained it 
only in a degree ; and it was necessary for them to 
pursue their studies and contemplations regarding 
that faith which they possessed in the gospel, as it 
is necessary for people to pay strict attention to the 
study of any science, in order to become perfected in 
it. Our text by no means allows the common, 
vulgar notion, among certain Christians, that a per- 
son becomes perfected in the faith of the gospel all 
9^ 



102 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 



in a moment ; and knows as much as lie is ever to 
know by one instantaneous act, which they call 
conversion. 

All knowledge is obtained by degrees ; ail wisdom 
is obtained by close application ; and there is a 
growth in grace, also, and in the knowledge of our 
Lord Jesus Christ . It is as improper for a profess- 
or of Christianity to suppose that, because he has 
entered the school of Jesus Christ, he is perfected in 
the divine science of the religion of our Saviour, as 
it would be for a child, sent to school, the moment 
he enters that school to fancy he knows as much as 
the preceptor. Yet, my friendly hearers, you will 
often find it to be the case, in Christian churches, 
that when one joins the church he joins it full- 
grown in size ; he knows all that he is ever to be 
taught. He knows the creed, or says he knows it ; 
and that is all he is to know, because he is never 
allowed to know more. The confession of faith, laid 
before the catechumen, contains the truth, and noth- 
ing but the truth ; and nothing more is he allowed 
to learn but what is contained in that. He knows 
as much the first day as he is to know forever ; and 
I name these things because they are directly op- 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK, 



103 



posed to my text. My text supposes that Christians 
may be imperfect in their faith, and stand in need 
of this office being done them, — namely, to perfect 
them in their faith. 

Another observation seems to be necessary here, 
namely, that it is not charitable for ns to condemn 
one another because we do not all exactly agree in 
the knowledge we have ; for this condemnation 
prevents the enjoyment of the privilege of learning : 
and if scholars were treated in this way in schools, 
because they did not all know as much as the 
schoolmaster, and if the schoolmaster should turn 
your dear little children out of his school because 
they did not know as much as he did, when would 
they learn ? They were sent there to learn ; but, 
if they are treated in this way, they never will learn. 
But how often is it that the Christian brethren will 
hold no communion with a person unless he holds 
all the dogmas they do ! Perhaps he will, if they 
give him time to learn ; but how is he to do it with- 
out ? Throw away all these partialities, my friendly 
hearers, and consider you are all the children of God ; 
and as many as wish to learn in the school of the 
blessed Redeemer go to school together, and have 



104 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 

Christ, not man, for your master, and then you will 
all advance in knowledge together. 

Having made these introductory remarks, I shall 
proceed to show that, according to some particulars, 
there is such a thing as real believers not believing 
all that is necessary for them to believe. There is 
such a thing as Christians coming very far short of 
that knowledge necessary for them. And the first 
particular case which I shall mention is that of St. 
Peter. I have not time to say much with regard 
to the character of Peter ; but it is evident that, 
before the death of his Master, he had obtained a 
knowledge of Christ, and of the religion of Christ ; 
yet there were some things which Peter did not 
believe at that time, which he certainly believed 
afterwards. You will recollect our Saviour indicates 
that all his apostles, or disciples, had followed him in 
the regeneration. These are his words : " You who 
have followed me in the regeneration," &c. Now, 
you must perceive that those who followed him in 
the regeneration did not believe that he would die 
upon the cross, though he told them he should. 
They did not believe he would die, and rise again, 
though he told them so ; and, when the event took 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 105 

place, they all forsook him, and they expected all 
their hopes were gone forever. After the resurrec- 
tion of our Lord J esus, he did not abandon them ; 
he did not excommunicate his apostles, or his dis- 
ciples, because they did not sooner exercise faith in 
what he had told them ; but he went directly to 
them, and gave them ocular demonstration of the 
truth of what he had said. 

If we would treat our brethren in this way, it 
would be much better for us. But what do we do, 
instead ? If one will not believe all that others 
believe, or profess to believe, they never will let him 
have an opportunity of knowing what he ought to 
believe ; for they excommunicate. But J esus went 
to the unbelieving Thomas, and said, " Beach hither 
thy hand, and thrust it into my side ; and be not 
faithless, but believing." This is very different from 
excommunication. He gave the unbelieving Thomas 
all the evidence he wanted, and brought him to cry 
out "My Lord and my God !" Such a spirit, in 
the Christian church would work a miracle in our 
age ; it would convert thousands ; whereas that cold 
temper, which excommunicates every brother and 



106 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 

sister who does not comprehend what others do, 
destroys all peace and happiness. 

But now the disciples became believers, and Peter, 
as well as Thomas, believed. Peter, from this time, 
followed his Master penitentially ; and on the day 
of Pentecost you hear this faithful servant of our 
Lord preaching with the tongue of divine love, 
speaking all languages, and communicating the 
wonderful work of God in the resurrection of his 
child Jesus from the dead ; and this circumstance 
resulted in the conversion of more than three thou- 
sand souls in one day! Was not Peter then per- 
fected in his faith ? Did he not know, on the day 
of Pentecost, as much as was necessary for him to 
know ? No ! He had a lesson after this, in the 
gospel, that taught him more than all that he had 
learned before. You will read it in the tenth chap- 
ter of the Acts of the Apostles. You there find 
that the angel of the Lord went to a centurion, 
named Cornelius, and told him to send to J oppa and 
call one Simon Peter. While the messengers were 
going after Simon Peter, Peter went up, about the 
hour of prayer, to the house-top, to pray ; and he 
became very hungry, and would have eaten ; but, 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 107 

while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and 
saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending 
unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the 
four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein 
were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, 
and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of 
the air : and there came a voice from heaven, say- 
ing, " Rise, Peter ; kill and eat." Now, Peter had 
been brought up and educated a Jew ; and the Jew- 
ish rites forbade him to eat of anything that was 
unclean. In this vessel there were things that were 
unclean, as well as clean ; and Peter replies, accord- 
ing to his education, " Not so, Lord ; for nothing 
common or unclean hath at any time entered into 
my mouth." Here he resisted the command of God, 
and contended for the prejudices of his education ; 
and he continued to resist the word of the Lord. 
How remarkable it is that a man will acknowledge 
the word of God, but will not give up the prejudices 
of his education ! Now, mark the answer that is 
given from heaven to Peter : " What God hath 
cleansed, that call not thou common." This was 
done thrice, and the vessel was received up again 
into heaven. 



108 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 

I have here to remark to you that all which Peter 
thought was unclean was taken up into heaven ; and 
he says he saw it come down from thence. He 
could not perceive, when it came from heaven, that 
what comes from heaven must be pure ; but it 
came down from heaven, and it returned to heaven 
again. " Now, while Peter doubted in himself 
what this vision which he had seen should mean, 
behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had 
made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before 
the gate, and called, and asked whether Simon, which 
was surnamed Peter, was lodged there. While 
Peter thought on the vision, the spirit said unto 
him, Behold, three men seek thee ; arise, therefore, 
and get thee down, and go with them, doubting 
nothing, for I have sent them/' Accordingly, Peter 
went with them, not without some embarrassment, 
but considerably improved in mind ; and when he 
entered the house of Cornelius, you know with what 
tender attention he treats him. He says to the 
people that were come together, M Ye know how 
that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew 
to keep company with or come unto one of another 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 109 

nation ; but God hath showed me that I should not 
call any man common or unclean." 

Now, we have a great many among us who have 
not learned so much as Peter; but we do not 
give them up. We have given them some lessons 
of Christianity ; but they must continue to learn, 
and know that they are not to call any man un- 
clean ; and they must learn that J esus gave himself 
a ransom for all men to be testified in due time, that 
they might thereby be cleansed. But we have no 
disposition to forbid them the privileges of the 
church. Let them have all the privileges of the 
school ; for the more ignorant they are, the more 
they are in need of instruction. I would here ob- 
serve that the other disciples of Jesus were just in 
the situation of Peter, before they learned this ; for 
you learn in the 11th chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles that they were called Christians. And 
when Peter is summoned to an account by his brethren 
for going among uncircumcised people, with all calm- 
ness possible he heard their complaint, and with 
his native simplicity he related the whole of his 
vision, and concluded with these very words: 
"What was I, that I could withstand God?" 
10 



110 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 

His brethren did not then say to him, " Peter, if 
you are of opinion that Gentiles are fit objects for 
this salvation, we will excommunicate you ; " but 
they glorified God, saying, " Then hath God also 
the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." This 
was the first time they knew this. These were the 
first tidings they had of it ; and now they learned 
that the Scriptures were to be a light to lighten the 
Gentiles. These are facts recorded in Scripture 
calculated to illustrate the subject before us ; and 
showing that the Christian should grow in grace, and 
improve in knowledge, in order to be perfect. 
' Now, I ask your attention to another circum- 
stance, — to the vision of Ezekiel of the holy 
waters. He informs us that the angel that waited 
on him measured out a thousand furlongs and led 
him into the waters, and the waters were up to his 
ankles. I will say a word or two as to the applica- 
tion of this. We shall suppose, if Ezekiel had 
stopped here and gone no further, but returned 
with this experience, he could only have given us 
an account of these waters which he had seen. 
"Would he have supposed that these waters were 
fordable? Why, certainly. He had travelled in 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK, 111 

them a thousand furlongs, and had only found that 
the water was up to his ankles. Suppose another 
person should have told him that that water was too 
deep for a man to wade in, — he would have contra- 
dicted it. But this was not the case. He was 
favored still further. The angel measured it an- 
other thousand furlongs, and there it was up to his 
knees ; and the third time the angel measured, it 
was up to his loins ; and there was a fourth time 
the angel measured it, and then what does Ezekiel 
say ? " And it was a river that I could not pass 
over, for the waters were risen ; waters to swim in, 
— a river that could not be passed over." He did 
not know all this at once. It was only up to his 
ankles, at first. He travelled further, and it was 
up to his knees. He went still further, and it was 
up to his loins ; and still further, and found that it 
was a river which he could not pass. Here, then, 
is the propriety of continuing in our march ; not 
stopping and disputing on the margin about some 
little pebble-stones we may find there, and, as 
thousands do, deny that this river has become risen 
waters, and suppose that they can pass, and go be- 
yond it. Thousands think that the opposite shore 



112 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 

is within their reach, and that they can go beyond 
this river ; but Ezekiel travelled in it until he saw 
no man could pass it ; and Paul has this passage of 
Scripture directly in point, — " Where sin abounded, 
grace did much more abound. " Hence, we may 
now say, " Where sin aboundeth, grace doth still 
much more abound." This is different . doctrine 
from what many Christians entertain. We con- 
demn nobody for it. We do not expect them to 
believe in the fulness of the gospel until they have 
travelled in it. 

One word more, and then I have done upon this 
subject. I will call your attention very particularly 
to the peculiar and singular circumstances attending 
the resurrection of Lazarus. When Lazarus was 
taken sick, his two dear sisters, Martha and Mary, 
who were both believers in Christ, sent immediately 
for Jesus ; and this was the message sent, — " He 
whom thou lovest is sick," meaning Lazarus. At 
that time Jesus was on the other side of the river 
Jordan. He did not go immediately, but he staid 
there until Lazarus died. He did not come where 
Lazarus lay until four days after he had been dead. 
After this, he came with his disciples to the place. 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 113 

When he came, Martha, full of grief and sorrow, 
says, " Lord, hadst thou been here, my brother had 
not died," Do you perceive, Martha did not believe 
he had the power to raise him, when he was once 
dead ? But there was another thing indicated in 
these words, "Lord, hadst thou been here, my 
brother would not have died ; " namely, this, — " You 
have come too late. I might have had a brother 
now living, had you come in season ; but the season 
is past, the opportunity is gone, and I am destitute 
of a brother and a friend ! " Says Jesus, " Where 
have you laid him ? " and advances to the sepulchre. 
Then she exclaims again, " Lord, by this time he 
stinketh ; for he hath been dead four days." Now., 
there is something very peculiar in this. It indi- 
cates, in the first place, that she believed and rea- 
soned within herself thus : "If Jesus had been 
here, my brother would not have died." In the 
second place, "If he had come before corruption 
had commenced, he might have raised him from the 
dead." All this can be clearly seen ; for the mo- 
ment he asked where the body lay, she immediately 
thought he was going to attempt his resurrection. 
When, as it seems, she granted that he might have 
10* 



114 RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 

been raised, if it had been attempted sooner, as she 
had probably seen Jesus exercise similar power on 
others ; but now, she thinks, it is too late, — it has 
been so long delayed, that his resurrection is impos- 
sible. She had gone, in fact, to the ne plus ultra 
of her faith. She sets it down as a lost case, be- 
cause corruption had begun ; and she says, " Lord, it 
is too late for the power of resurrection to bring him 
forth." There sat the glory of heaven, in all the 
lustre of his pure holiness ; and with the voice of 
heaven he said, "Lazarus, come forth!" Now 
Martha was convinced of one fact, which she never 
conceived possible before. She was now convinced 
that corruption itself was no barrier to the power 
of her Lord and Master. Her faith is perfected ; 
but she seemed to step along until the power of res- 
urrection stopped her, and then her living brother 
stood before her. 

I name these things that I may communicate to 
you, my hearers, this one idea : " When people are 
setting bounds to the mercy of Jesus Christ, they 
are only telling us how little they know, — that 
their faith is weak ; but, if they attend to these cir- 
cumstances and their consequences, generally all 
that will be found wanting is not wanting in the 



RELIGION A PROGRESSIVE WORK. 115 



grace of God, but in rightly understanding the 
expression, " Growing in grace and knowledge." Do 
not suppose you know enough. Do not suppose you 
have learned all that there is to learn. Do you not 
know that the most ignorant people are always the 
most knowing in their own estimation ? Yes. 
Then be careful not to fail in that particular. The 
way to know things is to investigate them. Do not 
be afraid of investigating everything, and inquiring 
into the cause and effect of everything. By these 
means you will learn ; and you will be surprised to 
see that so many religious people have so long con- 
tinued to believe what some old popes and cardinals 
have taught them. You may be mortified that you 
have not learned the truth before ; but that is no 
matter. Humble yourselves before God, and listen 
to that testimony which will enable you to grow in 
grace. Do not grow in contention or animosity 
among each other ; do not grow in a spirit of re- 
venge or retaliation towards your enemies ; but walk 
honestly, uprightly and peaceably, and may God 
Almighty bless you, and cause your goings forth to 
be like the morning, — like a morning without 
clouds, which shineth brighter and brighter unta 
the perfect day ! 



SERMON VII. 



BUT I CERTIFY TO YOE, BRETHREN, THAT THE GOSPEL 
WHICH WAS PREACHED OP ME IS NOT AFTER MAN. 

Galatians 1 : 11. 

A system of doctrine wliich is according to man 
must, of necessity, have its origin in the wisdom of 
man, — must partake of the peculiar qualities which 
distinguish man; and, of necessity, in all respects 
wherein man deviates from his Maker, that doctrine 
which he shall produce will deviate from the doc- 
trine which had its origin in God, and which the 
wisdom of God has produced. The apostle consid- 
ered it of importance that he should certify his 
brethren that the gospel of Jesus Christ was not 
after man; that is to say, it was not the production 
of the " wisdom of this world," that cometh to 
naught. It was not fashioned according to the pe- 
culiarities of imperfect man ; but his sentiment is 
evidently this, — that the gospel which was preached 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 117 

by Christ was the production of the wisdom of God ; 
and was fashioned, in all respects, according to the 
mind of God. 

I shall attempt, my friends, to show you three 
peculiar characteristics of the doctrine of man, 
which will always prove to your understandings 
that any doctrine which partakes of any of these 
three characteristics, or all of them, certainly is not 
from God, but is the production of human invention. 
In opposition to doctrines of this description, an 
attempt will be made to illustrate the doctrine of 
God as dissimilar, in all respects, from the doctrines 
of men ; and to discover it to have the qualities 
of God, and of God alone. 

The peculiar characteristics which are always dis- 
coverable in false doctrine are the following : 

1. Inconsistency, A doctrine that is, and must 
be, communicated in terms which indicate contradic- 
tion and inconsistency, bears on the face of it the 
peculiar characteristic which proves it to be the 
production of human wisdom, and not the produc- 
tion of God. There is no doctrine ever produced 
by the wisdom of this world that does not bear this 
characteristic ; and it is certain that no doctrine 



118 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 

which is inconsistent with itself is the doctrine of 
God. 

2. Partiality marks all the false doctrines thai 
are in the world, or ever were in the world ; and 
partiality always proves- a doctrine to be false, and 
not from God. For certainly no* doctrine that 
is partial can be the production of divine wisdom ; 
for that is described by St. James thus, " The wis- 
dom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and 
good fruits, icithout partiality, and without hypoc- 
risy." But, my friends, when you hear a doctrine 
preached, and declared to be directly from heaven, 
examine it with caution ; and, if it partake of par- 
tiality, set it down to be false, and attribute it to 
the wisdom of the world, which cometh to naught. 

3. Unmerciful wrath. And this is the conclu- 
sion of the description that distinguishes and marks 
all the doctrines of the world, all the systems of 
men, and proves them to be not of God, but of the 
wisdom of the world, that cometh to naught. 

Inconsistency, partiality, and unmerciful cru- 
elty ! Put these three together, and they prove a 
doctrine to be false, and not of God. 



CHARACTERISTICS OP THE GOSPEL. 119 

I will now ask your attention to a few observa- 
tions which may be made upon certain tenets that 
have been looked upon as essential articles of the 
Christian faith, and so essential as to be absolutely 
indispensable ; without which, we are told, we deny 
the Christian faith, and, therefore, are not worthy 
to be called Christians. What are these ? I will 
bring forward a clause from the Westminster Cate- 
chism ; with profound reverence, however, and hon- 
or to the memory of those who framed it, for their 
labors and their learning, as well as for their piety ; 
but with no respect for their errors, no honor for 
falsehood. It is perfectly right to try their creed 
by the standard of reason, by the standard of the 
word of God ; and we have a right to try it by the 
standard of itself. If it be an inconsistent creed, it 
is false ; if it be a partial creed, it is false ; and if it 
be an unmerciful creed, it is false : and if it have 
all these characteristics, it is unworthy the faith of 
believers in our Lord J esus Christ. 

The sentence I shall recite to you is in answer 
to this question : " Into what estate did the fall 
bring mankind ? A. All mankind, by the fall, lost 
communion with God ; fell under his wrath and 



120 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 

curse, and so were made liable to all the misery of 
this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for 
ever." " Is not that true ? " says the hearer. " Is 
not that the fact ? " We will not be in haste to 
answer. We are trying to see if it be true or not. 
I will now rehearse to you the very next answer in 
the Catechism. It is to this question : 

" Q. Did God leave all mankind to perish in this 
state of sin and misery ? 

"A. God, of his mere good pleasure, from all 
eternity, elected some — you will recollect, my 
hearers, if you please, the word "some;" — "all 
mankind " were contained in the first answer I read 
to you ; now, the word " some" is brought forward 
— ■ " elected some to everlasting life ; did enter into 
a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of a state 
of sin and misery, and bring them into a state of 
salvation by a Redeemer." Now, have I not pre- 
sented you with the foundation of inconsistency, of 
partiality, and of unmerciful cruelty ? Have not I 
presented to you, in that creed, all those character- 
istics ? Yes, my friends, if God. did, from all eter- 
nity, elect some to everlasting life, were that "some" 
ever made liable to the pains of hell forever ? Your 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 



121 



good sense says, at once, " If they were elected, from 
all eternity, to salvation, they were not liable to the 
pains of hell forever." 

But these doctors of divinity seem, in the same 
breath, to say that some are and have been elected, 
from all eternity, to everlasting life ; whereas, they 
have declared that aU mankind, by the fall, were 
liable to the pains of hell forever 1 Is that con- 
sistency or inconsistency ? It is inconsistency. It 
is a contradiction ; it is a proof positive that it is not 
of the wisdom of God, but of the wisdom of man. 
After they had stated that all mankind were in one 
condition, they then come forward and state that 
God elects some of the number to everlasting life. 
I ask, is not that partiality ? It is partiality, or it 
is impossible for language to describe partiality. Is 
this the language which the divine wisdom makes 
use of, in treating of the same subject ? The fram- 
ers of the Catechism were speaking of the covenant 
of grace, and say, " God from all eternity elected 
some to everlasting life, and entered into a covenant 
of grace, to deliver them," &c. When God Al- 
mighty preached the covenant of grace to Abraham, 
did he use such language ? No ; but he says, " In 
11 



122 CHARACTERISTICS OE THE GOSPEL. 

blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will 
multiply thee ; and in thee shall all the nations of 
the earth be blessed." You see the difference of 
the language. God says all the nations of the earth 
shall be blessed ; these divines say some ! Can you 
persuade yourselves that the subject these divines 
had under consideration was the same as that which 
Almighty God had in view when he made this 
promise to Abraham ? No ; their language differs 
so much, that you would suppose the subjects must 
differ. Is this not believed in the Christian church, 
and is it not made such an article of faith that the 
Christian fellowship must be denied for want of it, 
namely, that thousands and millions of the human 
family, the offspring of God, must be banished from 
his favor and his love to all eternity, and suffer 
indescribable torment as long as God or the world 
exists ? Yes. If that is not itnmerciful cruelty^ 
my hearers, what is ? 

Now, these three peculiar characteristics certainly 
discover themselves in that creed. I admonish you, 
by the force of this argument, that you never 
receive such creeds yourselves, nor suffer them to 
be taught to your children. Reconcile that creed 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL, 123 

with consistency, reconcile it with, impartiality, rec- 
oncile it with the boundless grace of our Lord and 
Saviour, and then receive it. But, if this be impos- 
sible, as your own sense will tell you, then reject it. 
If you have taught such a creed to your tender 
offspring, God pardon you, and save you from repeat- 
ing the enormity ! 

"We might investigate other peculiarities and con- 
tradictions in the doctrines of men, but it seems to 
be unnecessary ; for you will find in them nothing 
but a tissue of contradictions ; and it is exceedingly 
mortifying, to a man of sense and feeling, to be told, 
by men who preach such contradictions, that they 
are " mysteries." They are mysteries of iniquity, 
my hearers. Contradiction is not the mystery of 
the gospel. It is the mystery of iniquity ! 

And now permit me to leave the doctrines of 
men, and dwell on a theme that is infinitely more 
sweet and lovely. Let me recommend to you the 
doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of 
your salvation, a system perfectly free from incon- 
sistency, entirely free from partiality, and contain- 
ing in itself nothing like unmerciful cruelty. In 
the first place, that the gospel of our Lord Jesus 



124 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL 



Christ is destitute of partiality, will be seen by the 
language which is recorded in the Scriptures. Hear 
the prophet Isaiah : "In this mountain shall the 
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat 
things, a feast of wines on the lees ; of fat things 
full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of 
the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is 
spread over all nations. He will swallow up death 
in victory ; and the Lord God will wipe away tears 
from off all faces ; and the rebuke of his people 
shall he take away from off all the earth." — 25: 
6, 8. 

My friends, is it possible that divine wisdom 
would make use of such language as this to repre* 
sent that G-od had elected some ? No. " In this 
mountain shall be unto all a feast of fat things." 
You will read language that corresponds with what 
I have just cited, from the same inspired writer, 
" It shall come to pass in the last days, that the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established 
in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted 
above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it." 
— 2:2. Why shall all flow unto it ? Because 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL, 125 

"a feast of fat things" is there prepared for alL 
The same inspired writer says, speaking on the 
theme of grace divine, " Ho, every one that thirst- 
eth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no 
money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy 
wine and milk without money and without price. 
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not 
bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? 
Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which 
is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." 
— -55 : 1, 2. Is not such language as this evidently 
designed to communicate the idea of impartiality ? 
Yes, it surely is. 

Now, look at the language of the New Testament. 
Read what our blessed Saviour has done for the 
world in his suffering and death, and compare that 
with the language made use of in the creed we have 
noticed. St. Paul, writing to Timothy, exhorts as 
follows : "I exhort, therefore, that first of all, 
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of 
thanks be made for all men ; for kings, and for all 
that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and 
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty ; for this 
is good and acceptable in the sight of God our 
11* 



126 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 

Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and 
come to the knowledge of the truth" This is the 
same God to whom the divines had reference when 
they said that " God elected some " / And now hear 
what the inspired writer says, — " Who will have all 
men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the 
truth ;" and he renders the following reason for so 
saying : "There is one God, and one Mediator, the 
man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for 
ALL."— 1 Tim. 2 : 1, 6. This is the same blessed 
Mediator to whom these divines alluded when they 
said, "God entered into a covenant of grace to 
deliver some from a state of salvation by a Redeem- 
er" The same apostle says again, K We see Jesus, 
who was made a little lower than the angels for the 
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, 
that he might taste death for every man." — Heb. 
2:9. The beloved disciple, whose soul was sweet- 
ened by its intimacy with the lovely J esus, has his 
creed, " If any man sin, we have an advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the 
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but 
also for the sins of the whole world." How differ- 
ent this is from the word " some " ! 



CHARACTERISTICS 0E THE GOSPEL. 127 

Agreeably with this, we read in the prophecy of 
Isaiah, " All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we 
have turned every one to his own way, and the 
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He 
was wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised 
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." 

— 53 : 5, 6. Gan you gather anything from this lan- 
guage of divine inspiration that indicates inconsist- 
ency, partiality, or cruelty ? No. Now look at the 
consistency of this doctrine with the works of God ; 

— how perfectly does it harmonize with the univer- 
sal providence of God ! Here, also, we may see the 
beauty, excellence and divinity, of this doctrine. 
The doctrine of universal grace corresponds with the 
kindness of our heavenly Father, in all his ways, in 
all his works, and in all his providence. How im- 
partial are the rays of the sun ! How impartial are 
those genial showers that call forth and ripen the 
fruits of the earth for the use of man ! How im- 
partial are the fountains and rivers that flow through, 
our thousands of hills and valleys, to water the face 
of the earth for the blessing of man and beast! 
When we look into the wisdom of God, and the 



128 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 



boundless favor of his universal providence, how 
grateful ought we to feel for such goodness ! When 
we look into the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are 
doubly inspired with love to our Maker. We there 
find that the gospel corresponds with all his works 
in nature \ and we see that the universal goodness of 
God is as impartial in the grace of the gospel as it 
is in nature. They are equally dispensations of his 
blessings to the creatures which he has made. This 
doctrine harmonizes with the very law of heaven. 
Hear the commandments which God gave : " Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with 
all thy soul, and with all thy strength ; and thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two 
commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 
Here, my hearers, the doctrine of divine grace cor- 
responds with the universality of this command. 
No human being can yield obedience to this law, 
without being blest to the full extent of his capac- 
ity. 

Look at the temper, spirit and disposition, of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who was " the brightness of his 
Father's glory, and the express image of his per- 
son, and learn if there be any such thing as incon- 



CHARACTERISTICS OP THE GOSPEL. 129 

sistency, partiality or cruelty, in what he teaches. 
What was the language of that man — the Son of 
God — on the cross ? He had at that time exerted 
against him all the cruelty which the malice of his 
enemies could instigate ; and, in that situation, what 
was the language of our Saviour ? " Father, for- 
give them; for they know not what they do ! " This 
is the spirit of the religion of Christ. This is the 
spirit of the doctrine of the gospel which he 
preached ; and God can no more be changed from 
that to wrath and enmity towards his creatures, than 
the sun can be changed from the brilliancy which 
his glorious rays emit to a flood of darkness ; for 
God is unchangeably the same. 

We are told that the blessed Saviour, who came 
into the world not to condemn the world, but that 
the world through him might be saved, will, at 
another time, be clothed with the garment of 
vengeance and wrath ; will tread down his enemies 
beneath his feet, and sink them to everlasting tor- 
ment. 0, my hearers, then is his goodness over- 
come, indeed ! Then, at last, will the cross on 
which he suffered become the curse of those whom 
he died to save. And he who suffered for our sins 



ISO CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 

on the tree of death will condemn us, when on the 
throne of God, to everlasting misery! What a 
detraction is this from the dignity, the glory, and 
the grace of God ! " Moreover, the law entered, 
that the offence might abound ; nevertheless, where 
sin abounded, grace doth much more abound ; that, 
as sin hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign 
through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus 
Christ our Lord." — Rom. 5 : 20, 21. 

" I certify you, brethren, that the doctrine which 
is preached by me is not after man ; " and as man 
did not contrive it, but invented a different doctrine, 
in the spirit of his own creed he will abuse the doc- 
trine of heaven, and call it not of God, and he will 
endeavor to stigmatize all those who profess it. He 
will hold up his own creed in preference to the 
creed of heaven, and his own wisdom in preference 
to the wisdom of the Almighty ; but, my hearers, 
you are called upon to exercise the reason and un- 
derstanding which God has given you, to judge care- 
fully and impartially on these subjects. Decide for 
yourselves. Independent of the force of education, 
of the influence of superstition and bigotry, search 
the Scriptures, to see if these things are so. Re- 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL. 131 

member this, my beloved friends : If you are blessed 
with the belief of God's universal impartial good- 
ness, be cautious that you conform to the principles 
of it ; and do not profess only, but conform to this 
doctrine, and live agreeably to it. Be impartial 
and kind to your fellow-creatures ; act upon the no- 
ble principle of your faith ; observe the doctrine of 
God our Saviour, and observe the harmony of the 
language of the inspired apostle, — " The grace of 
God, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath ap- 
peared, teaching us that we should live soberly, 
righteously and godly, in this present world." 

May God give you grace and wisdom, that you 
may improve by all you have heard, live to his glory 
on earth, and be prepared to dwell with him in an 
eternity of bliss ! 



SERMON VIII. 



The wicked shall be turned lnto hell, and all the 
nations that forget God. — Psalm 9 : 17. 

The attention of this Christian audience will be 
directed to the subject under consideration with a 
peculiar motive. To understand the true significa- 
tion and import of these words, mj friends, is it 
not reasonable even for our opposers to suppose that 
we are as much interested as any people can be ? 
Would they suppose that we have adopted the senti- 
ments which we believe without a careful reference 
to all such passages of Scripture as the one under 
consideration ? And can they persuade themselves 
to believe we have adopted our sentiments without 
being able to satisfy ourselves upon such subjects ? 
If they reasoned correctly on this subject, their 
conclusion would be far otherwise ; but they have, 
no doubt, satisfied themselves that the right manner 
in which to explain this passage is, that the ever- 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 133 

lasting and interminable punishment of the wicked 
in the world to come is taught by it. The usual 
practice is (a few excepted) for them not to hear 
how we understand these words ; they do not give 
us an opportunity of explaining these subjects in 
their houses of worship, nor do they allow their 
congregations the privilege of hearing for them- 
selves how these things are understood by us. As 
it respects ourselves, our thoughts of God, our 
thoughts of eternity, are quite as weighty, quite as 
full of solemnity, to us, as they can be to any peo- 
ple in the world. We cannot satisfy ourselves by 
giving the Scriptures a sort of cant ; by inventing 
for them a peculiar turn, in order to give them force 
and pungency. No, — we have no such disposition. 
We value our happiness too highly for this. If 
there is any testimony in scripture against the doc- 
trine we have adopted, we desire to know where it 
is; we desire to understand the true sense and 
meaning of it ; and if it be of sufficient authority 
to disprove the doctrine we profess, there is no peo- 
ple more deeply interested in knowing such scrip- 
ture than we are. On the one hand, the speaker 
shall by no means allow himself to pass over one 
12 



134 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

point slightly ; on the other, the hearer shall not 
be allowed to make less or more of any particular 
point of the text than the text makes of itself, 
when compared with the scriptures on the same 
subject. I have one more remark to make before I 
proceed, and that is by way of caution. I would 
caution you against the influence of prejudice. You 
all know that it is highly improper for a person to 
sit as a judge in a case, where he has prejudged 
that case. It is highly improper for him to act as 
a judge, if he is to allow prejudice to decide the 
case when tried. I therefore ask you to lay aside 
all prejudice with respect to the passage now under 
consideration. It has been usually considered that 
this passage signifies never-ending torment in the 
world to come. But this evening, at the commence- 
ment, I humbly ask you to lay that opinion aside, 
and say, within your own minds, " "We will examine, 
we will look at the subject, and see if anything else 
is the meaning." This is the fair way of investi- 
gating any subject ; and let your opinion and judg- 
ment be formed, when you have heard what may be 
offered. I will suggest a method which may con- 
tribute to assist you in the course we may pursue. 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 135 

I will, in the first place, lay before you the com- 
mon meaning attached to this subject. 

In the second place, I will attempt to disprove 
that meaning, and to show that such a construction 
cannot be admitted. 

I shall, in the third place, I trust, by God's help, 
show the genuine signification. 

I shall say but little on the first head, because 
that is well understood. " The wicked shall be 
turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 
God." Hell, in this sentence, is understood by most 
people to be a state beyond this state of mortality ; 
that God has prepared and constituted, with all the 
necessary ingredients of misery and torment, a place 
wherein to render the wicked indescribably wretched, 
and wretched for ever and ever. This sentiment is 
the common sentiment of the Christian church, and 
almost all denominations make use of this text in 
this way. Preachers from the pulpit declare this 
sentiment, either from the scripture under consider- 
ation, or from other passages of the same sort, which 
they apply in the same way ; and they are in the 
constant habit of threatening their hearers with ter- 
rible destruction, with an eternity of misery, as I 



136 HELL THE PUNISHMENT 03? SIN. 

have just noticed. Take your families, and go to 
the house of God for the purpose of worship. Yoa 
feel grateful for the blessings of Providence. In 
going to the sanctuary for the purpose of paying 
homage to the Deity, in room of having God's grace 
manifested and revealed through Jesus Christ, the 
awful denunciations and curses of everlasting wrath 
and vengeance are poured out upon you and your 
children. People are rendered wretched, and they 
go home with the impression that very few of them 
can escape this everlasting torment. I will appeal 
to the good sense of this congregation to bear me 
witness that I have not attempted to give the sense 
of these words any color not belonging to them. I 
have not displayed the least ingenuity to harrow up 
your feelings. I have said nothing as to what is 
going to take place hereafter. I have said nothing 
about tearing companion from companion, child from 
father and mother, brother from sister, or sister from 
brother ; I have said nothing about cutting asunder 
those sweet ligaments that bind society together. I 
have by no means attempted to excite your feelings 
with such a description of the meaning of these words 
as I have already mentioned. Let those do these 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 137 

things who believe the doctrine ; but, as to us, the 
task would be too painful. It belongs to us to dis- 
prove this construction of scripture, and to show 
that the passage under consideration means no such 
thing. And here you will indulge me in making a 
few additional remarks, by way of preface. I hum- 
bly ask you this question : If this sentiment to 
which this passage of scripture has been applied be 
not the true construction, then, I ask, is it not what 
we owe to God to make this manifest ? 

For us to answer this question, it is necessary to 
see the merit of it. Here, it is pretended by the 
professors and teachers of divinity, that Almighty 
God has appointed mankind to all these torments in 
the eternal world. But suppose, on the other hand, 
that this is not the case ; then, I ask, has not the 
character of God been greatly injured by such a rep- 
resentation? I will make this perfectly clear to 
your minds by this simile. Suppose I should tell 
your children they were in danger of receiving 
destruction at your hands ; and that, if they did not 
please you, you would torment them in the most 
awful manner, as long as you could. Suppose this 
be not the truth ; is it not due to your character to 
12* 



138 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

undeceive your children, and let them know you are 
not as you were represented to be ? Yes, certainly. 
Look at this subject, and observe another question. 
Is it not due to your poor, miserable children, to 
give them a proper idea of your virtue, and to dis- 
suade them from such a sentiment with respect to 
your character ? They do not know whither to 
turn — to the right , or to the left. They have a fear 
that they will be tormented, unless they are made 
different from what they are ; and, though they are 
not capable of making themselves different unless 
they are changed, they will certainly be liable to 
destruction. Unless they obey their parents, they 
will be destroyed ; and, being told they are incapa- 
ble of obeying them, they are filled with perplexity, 
expecting every moment to be called to an account, 
and sentenced to interminable destruction. Is it not 
due to the parent to undeceive the children ; and is 
it not due to the children to be undeceived ? Most 
certainly. Let this case be applied. If this pas- 
sage be misconstrued in representing God as unmer- 
cifully cruel towards mankind, is it not due to the 
character of God to clear it of its reproach, and 
that mankind should be undeceived? And is it 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 139 

not due to mankind to undeceive them with respect 
to the character of their heavenly Father ? Cer- 
tainly. 

One remark more, before we proceed. What is 
distressing more than anything is this fact, namely, 
that the horrible doctrine to which this passage has 
been applied operates most cruelly upon the most 
tender and innocent 'part of society. It operates 
chiefly on those tender mothers and feeble sisters 
who cannot repel these things with the steadiness 
that others can do. Here we see the mother weep- 
ing over her children; we see our dear sisters 
lamenting the probability of their eternal torment, 
and perpetually praying that they may be delivered 
from such a state, — perpetually harassing their 
souls with the most awful apprehensions. Such a 
doctrine, I say, operates severely upon the most in- 
nocent and affable part of society, — that part we 
ought to protect and comfort. But, in the room of 
this, we find ministers busying themselves with the 
female part of society, and pouring into their ears, 
as the serpent did into the ear of Eve, the most 
mischievous doctrines, and tormenting their souls 
with the agony that this doctrine must inspire. 



140 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

I have, perhaps, been too long on this subject 
However, I will now proceed to disprove this con- 
struction of the words under consideration. My 
first argument, my friends, is the text itself, as it 
reads ; and, allowing this construction to be true, 
it proves more than the opponent will allow ; and 
this is good ground of argument. Now, hear the 
words, and bear me record that I give them no turn, 
but allow them to be understood according to their 
natural signification. " The wicked shall be turned 
into hell, and all the nations that forget God." The 
text does not intimate that they may possibly be 
turned into hell. There is no conditionality. There 
is no alternative. It is stated as a positive fact. 
Some may bring in an objection, and say that it 
implies a conditionality, and means that they shall 
be turned into hell unless they repent. Read the 
Scriptures ; and, my friendly hearers, let me ask 
you if it be right to make any addition to the word 
of God ? Is it warrantable to say that the text 
means what it says nothing about ? No ; the text 
gays the wicked shall be turned into hell. It does 
not say they shall be turned into hell unless they 
repent and believe. It has no reference to repent- 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 141 

ance. Repentance is a New Testament doctrine. 
These words nave no reference to believing ; there is 
no conditionality about them. The testimony is, that 
the wicked shall be turned into hell. It shall take 
place. It cannot be prevented. 

Now, if you allow it can be prevented, the sub- 
ject is perverted, and I have no more to say to it ; 
such a construction would destroy the text. But we 
will not allow this. We will not allow a condition, 
when a condition is not in the text ; but we will 
contend for the authority of these words directly. 
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all 
nations that forget God." But here is another 
particular point. Does it mean that all, or only 
part, of the wicked shall be turned into hell ? The 
reading of the text decides the question. It decides 
that all the wicked shall be turned into hell. It 
says, " The wicked, and all nations that forget God, 
shall be turned into hell." This is the sober mean- 
ing. It means nothing short of it. It means 
nothing more. The method which I proposed for 
the consideration of this subject was, that I would 
show what it says ; and then show that, if it has 



142 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OP SIN. 



been applied right, it proves more than they allow 
who make this use of it. 

One question more arises, — how many of the 
human family do the Scriptures declare have for- 
gotten God ? I will not extend my inquiry to the 
whole population of the world ; I will go directly to 
the author of the text. How many does this sweet 
psalmist of Israel say ? " The Lord looked down 
from heaven upon the children of men, to see if 
there were any that did understand and seek God. 
They are all gone aside ; they are altogether become 
filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." 
No, not one. All had gone out of the way ; then 
all had forgotten God. This is the testimony of the 
same author. He says, " All the nations that forget 
God shall be turned into hell and then says that 
" All the people below heaven had forgotten God," 
or words of the same purport. Now, I ask, does 
this not prove more than our opposers will allow ? 
Are they willing to understand that themselves, and 
all mankind, from Adam to his last offspring, who 
have forgotten God, — all ministers, all deacons, all 
people, — shall be turned into hell ? Will they allow 
this ? No. Then they would compromise the 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 143 

question in some way or other, or give up the text. 
This text says, u The wicked shall be turned into 
hell, and all the nations that forget God." The 
testimony of the same author says that they, the 
children of men, are all gone aside. Then they are 
all wicked, and have forgotten God. Since, there- 
fore, all nations have forgotten God, this is a good 
argument directly to disprove the application of the 
text. David, the author of all that has been quoted 
on this subject, says, " Ail the nations, whom thou 
hast made, shall come and worship before thee, 0 
Lord, and glorify thy name." He that said, " All na- 
tions that forget God shall be turned into hell," now 
says, " All nations shall worship before the Lord." 
Now, no nation that he named could be turned into 
an endless hell ; because, all the nations of which 
he spake shall come and worship ; and if there were 
any nations that he did not name, how shall we 
know what will become of them ? I will ask my 
attentive audience this question, — whether this does 
not stand a confused subject before you ? Can you 
see any consistency in it, — any meaning ? Can you 
conceive that an inspired writer would first tell you 
God Almighty decreed that all mankind were to be 



144 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

miserable to all eternity, and then tell you all the 
nations of the earth shall worship before God ? 
"All nations, all kindred, shall worship before 
thee." Is this the author of the text ? Yes ; and 
this is a man declared to be the prophet of God. 
He is represented to be moved by holy inspiration, 
in this testimony. 

Now, I will ask one question more : Does the 
gospel, which whispers peace, pardon, love and 
salvation, through the mediation of the Son of God, 
contemplate the salvation of one single individual, 
unless it be a sinner, or wicked person ? Do you 
learn, from reading the gospel, that it was designed 
for the salvation of any but sinners ? Did not 
Jesus say, " I come not to call the righteous, but 
sinners, to repentance " ? Does not St. Paul, his 
faithful servant and follower, speak to the same 
effect ? What says David ? That they are to be 
saved ? No ; cast into hell ! And yet the same 
David said that all nations should come and worship 
before God. St. Paul says, " This is a faithful say- 
ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came 
into the world to save sinners." Put these together, 
and make sense of them. I know what you will 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 145 

say. You will say the Scriptures are broken, and 
are made to contradict each other. Why so ? 
They are, my friends, if hell be a place of misery in 
another world. But, if the hell into which sinners 
are to be turned be a state from which the wicked 
can be reclaimed, redeemed and restored, the Scrip- 
tures may harmonize ; but in no other way. 

" Well, then," says the hearer, " one thing is cer- 
tainly wanted, in this place. We want to know 
whether this hell, in its proper sense, can be in this 
world, or is it in another world ? " Well, my friends, 
I expect to give you perfect satisfaction on this sub- 
ject, if you are perfectly attentive and candid. The 
testimony of the same writer is what I shall adduce 
to prove that the hell of which he speaks is in this 
world ; and we do no violence to his language so to 
explain it. What does this writer say about hell ? 
How did David know that the wicked would be turned 
into hell ? He knew it by experience ; because he 
had been a sinner. I need not undertake to prove 
that he had been a sinner, for you are aware of that 
feet. He had been wicked, and had been turned 
into hell ; and you have his own testimony for this. 
For, in the eighty-sixth psalm, he says, " Great is 
13 



146 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

thy mercy, 0 Lord ; for thou hast delivered my send 
from the lowest hell." Is it possible David said 
this ? Yes, it is. " Great is thy mercy, O Lord ; for 
thou hast delivered my sold from the lencest hell" 
Is it possible he had been in the lowest hell, and 
had been delivered from it ? Was he in this world, 
or in another world, when he wrote thus ? He was 
in this world. He was flesh and blood ; but he had 
been in the lowest hell! God had been merciful 
towards him, and had delivered him from it. 
" But," says the objector, " I do not know that that 
is making a right use of the text. Perhaps all he 
meant was, that he was prevented from going there. 
If the pains of that awful torment had seized upon 
him, he could not have been delivered." In the 
one hundred and sixteenth psalm and the third 
verse, he says, " The pains of hell gat hold upon 
me." Xow there is no need of the first words. 
Here is testimony direct. He says, first, that God 
had delivered him from the lowest hell ; and then, 
he says, the pains of hell gat hold of him. He had 
not only been in the lowest hell, but the pains of 
hell had seized upon him ; and yet he was delivered 
by the mercy of God ! God did not accept of his 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OE SIN. 



147 



going into hell as an atonement, but by his repent* 
ance he was delivered from hell. 

In addition to the testimony of David, I will give 
you that of J onah ; who, when speaking of his 
deliverance from the belly of the fish,^ says, "Out 
of the belly of hell cried I unto the Lord, and thou 
heardest my voice." He must have been there 
when he cried unto God, and when he cried God 
heard him. Now, here it is evident that it was 
possible for Jonah to be in the belly of hell, and for 
God to hear him when he cried to him. The Bible 
contains a great many other things, with respect to 
hell, which prove that it is in this world. Solo- 
mon, in his ninth chapter of Proverbs, says, " A 
foolish woman is clamorous : she is simple, and 
knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her 
house, on a seat in the high places of the city, to 
call passengers who go right on their ways : whoso 
is simple, let him turn in hither ; and as for him 
that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Stolen 
waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleas- 
ant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there : 
and that her guests are in the depths of hell" 0, 

* See Note B. 



148 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

my friendly hearers, most assuredly, according to 
this testimony, every individual who listens to the 
voice of folly, and deviates from the paths of wisdom 
and righteousness, finds himself in the lowest depths 
of hell !* 

Once more, I will give you an instance of the use 
of the word " hell," and then shall suppose that I 
have given you enough. St. James says of the 
tongue, — that "little member," which "boastcth 
great things," — " The tongue is a fire, a world of 
iniquity: it defileth the whole body, and setteth 
on fire the whole course of nature ; and it is set on 
fire of hell." t Did you never see men join together, 
and with their tongues kindle up a fire ? Yes. St. 
James calls that hell. They did it with their 
tongue, that unclean member, full of deadly poison. 
0, the tongue, ungoverned, will turn you into hell, 
and bring you into sorrow and trouble ! 

I cannot believe that my subject now remains 
obscure. You must now, I think, understand the 
true application of this subject, " The wicked shall 
be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 
God." Every individual who walks in the paths of 

* See Note C. f See JSTote D. 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 149 

Wickedness goes into hell; for trouble, perplexity 
and misery, are the inseparable companions of sin 
and transgression. All the nations of the earth that 
practise wickedness are involved in trouble and 
"wickedness. I ask now whether hell is . in this 
world or in another ? You must say, in answer, 
" In this world." Read the history of the Jewish 
nation. What exalted her ? A wise and equal 
policy, a judicious line of conduct and administra- 
tion of government, consistent with the laws of 
righteousness. What threw this nation down from 
her glory ? What blotted her name from heaven ? 
Her transgressions ; it was because she sinned against 
God, and did not do justice towards his Son. What 
exalted the house of Israel ? Their righteousness 
and piety. What degraded that people lower than 
any other people ? Their disobedience to Heaven. 
And when our blessed Saviour spoke of their 
destruction, he said, " For these be the days of 
vengeance, that all things which are written may be 
fulfilled. , ' And what was written in the law of 
Moses, with respect to the people who should sin 
against God, has been accomplished upon that peo- 
ple. Can you read the Scriptures, and know that 
18* 



150 HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 

the house of Israel was not punished for their sins ? 
No. And now I will ask you a question which 
comprises what has passed under your own obser- 
vation. 

It is contended, by a deluded ministry, that God 
does not reward virtue and holiness in the earth, but 
keeps back the reward until his children shall enter 
another world. Is this true ? I appeal to your 
own observation ; and look away from yourselves, 
if you are not pleased to observe yourselves. Look 
at those who are wretched and miserable, destitute 
of friends in the world, — the most degraded, who 
have not even the consolation of a good conscience, 
nor the esteem of society at large. I ask you, have 
they got into this miserable situation by their well- 
doing ? Do honestly answer me this question. Is 
it their well-doing which has been the cause of all 
this misery ? No : you know to the contrary. 
You know it was their idleness, their want of econ- 
omy, giving themselves up to their blind passions, 
and following after sinful pleasure. When you look 
at a dissipated young man, do you not feel an emo- 
tion of pity and grief, as you see him ruining him- 
self? What is the cause of this ? His vain appe- 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 151 

tites. He will soon be by the wall, and he is seen 
staggering about the streets. Can there be a worse 
hell than this ? If you want to see a worse hell, go 
into that dear family where distress is heightened 
by family broils, where misery is brought on by 
the disobedience of children to parents, and the 
unkindness of parents to children. I ask you, is it 
righteousness that breaks up the peace of families ? 
Is it well-doing ? No ; evil conduct. I wish to 
ask you, now, is it religion, is it virtue, that gives 
so many inmates to the penitentiary ? Is it right- 
eousness that drives so many wretched victims to 
the gallows, and to confinement for life ? No. 
Now, that is hell ; all such misery is hell. The 
world is full of it. Some are just turning in, some 
are just turning out ; and we pray, and fervently 
pray, God to keep them out of this condition. It is 
the inevitable consequence of transgression ; and I 
tell you, old and young, if you transgress, if you 
do wrong, you must suffer for it. The way to 
avoid being wretched is to love God with all your 
heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, 
and your neighbor as yourself. Let me read a 
passage of scripture, and you will understand this. 



152 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OP SIN. 



" By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not 
of yourselves, it is the gift of God." " Then," says 
the hearer, "it is not necessary for me to do good 
works for the purpose of being saved." No : " Not 
of works, lest any man should boast ; for we are his 
workmanship, created in Jesus Christ unto good 
works, which God hath before ordained, that we 
walk in them." Now, my friendly hearers, observe 
that our Saviour saves us "to" good works, not 
" for " good works ; and a man who is saved is only 
saved from wrong-doing to right-doing. " Thou 
shalt call his name J esus ; for he shall save his peo- 
ple from their si?is." The thing they are saved 
from is sin ; and the thing they are saved to is 
righteousness. 

And now, lest I should weary your patience, I 
shall submit what I have said to your dispassionate 
consideration. I appeal to your understandings 
whether I have perverted the text in any way. I 
ask you to look, and see if I hold up any doctrine 
that naturally leads you to do wrong. Do you live 
lives of virtue, and agreeably to the commands of 
God, — then you will live in the enjoyment of God, 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 153 

and of virtue ; but, if you pursue a contrary course, 
you can neither enjoy God nor virtue. 

0, may the good will of hirn who hedge th up the 
ways of the wicked with thorns hedge up your way, 
my hearers, so that none of you go in sin and trans- 
gression ! Then will you be free from misery, and 
woe, and wretchedness. And let me persuade you to 
deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God ; 
for this is what God requireth of you : and, if you 
examine the economy of human life, you will per- 
ceive that every inconvenience, and every infelicity, 
is the consequence of wrong-doing. Is there any 
poor, wretched soul present, who cries out, in the 
agonies of his heart, and, as it were, from hell, " I 
have despised God, — I have given myself up to 
folly, and wandered so far that I cannot get back " ? 
To such a one I would say, Remember David's case ; 
and remember that he was delivered from the lowest 
hell. If there be such a one among you, I pray 
God he may be delivered from sin ; and let us all 
remember that " blessed are they that hunger and 
thirst after righteousness." 

May the Lord give you an appetite for truth, and 
a hunger and thirst after righteousness ; and may 



154 



HELL THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. 



his spirit lead you to walk iu a way that you may 
enjoy the presence of God, and the approbation of 
your own conscience ! For. in keeping Gods com- 
mandments, there is a great reward, — a reward of 
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and comfort and 
consolation of pure and undefiled religion. And 
may God grant, my friends, that this reward, this 
joy, may be yours ! 



SERMON IX. 



Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that 
he loved us, and sent his son to be the propiti- 
ATION for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, 

WE OUGHT ALSO TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. — 1 John 4 I 
10, 11. 

There are several very important subjects con- 
tained in the passage read for consideration. 

The first that invites our attention is this : that 
man did not love God, " Herein is love, not that 
we loved God" This was not the case. A question 
is framed on this subject, which is this : What was 
the reason, what was the cause, of man's not loving 
God ? There has been a great deal said upon the 
criminality of the want of love in man towards the 
Deity. It is our duty, in approaching this subject, 
to investigate it with caution, — to look into its 
nature, that we may be capable of judging of it, as 
we are capable of judging of any other subject of 
consequence to us. 



156 god's uncaused loye to man. 

In order to understand this question correctly, we 
ask the reason why we do not love anything else ? 
For it is observable, in common life, that there are 
some things we love, and there are some things we 
do not love ; and, if we can ascertain the cause that 
leads us to love any object whatever, on the one 
hand, and, on the other hand, the reason why we do 
not love other objects, we get data by which we can 
answer our question. What, then, is the cause of 
our delighting in and loving certain objects ? " Be- 
cause," says the hearer, " I see in those objects that 
which is lovely, or, at least, lovely to my apprehen- 
sion, — that which is agreeable to me, and the 
possession of which is calculated to render me blest." 
Very well. On the other hand, why do you look on 
other objects with a disgusted eye ? " Because," 
you answer, " there is no beauty in such objects, — 
there is no loveliness in them. I see nothing in 
them agreeable to me." I ask you, is it not in your 
power to love a disagreeable object, as well as an 
agreeable one ? " Why, indeed," you respond, " it 
is impossible ! " Could you not, my friends, love 
that disagreeable object, if you were threatened with 
some punishment if you did not love it ? Suppose 



god's uncaused love to man* 157 

I stated to you, if you would love such an object of 
disgust, you should receive great preferment ; but, 
on the other hand, if you did not love that object, 
you should suffer great deprivation, and, at last, 
miserable destruction. Then would you not love it ? 
" Why," says the hearer, " to be honest about it, I 
would become a hypocrite, and say I loved it, when 
I did not ; but, if it was disagreeable to me, I could 
not love it, though I lost my life if I did not." 
This is all true. This is simple nature. There is 
no mystery about it. Then I ask the same question 
relative to my subject. Why do not men love God ? 
The answer is simply this : because they see no 
beauty, no loveliness, — they see nothing in him that 
is agreeable. This is the reason, and all the reason. 

Let us be careful how we proceed. Does this 
suppose that there is no beauty, no loveliness, no 
worth, in the object ? No, it does not ; but it sup- 
poses we do not see these qualities. To render this 
more simple, I will suppose that I had the confi- 
dence of your little children, and I should tell them 
that you were their implacable foes, who had planned 
their destruction, and that they were by no means 
safe while in your hands. If they should believe 
14 



158 god's uncaused love to man, 

all this, and look up to their parents through the 
medium of this misrepresentation , they would see no 
beauty, no excellence, that they could admire ; but 
they would leave the door of your house, and your 
children would be gone at once. In this situation, 
knowing the cause that led them away, what would 
be your feelings towards them ? Would you hate 
your children because I deceived them, and through 
the medium of this deception caused them to dislike 
you ? No, my hearers, you would love them still, 
knowing them to be deceived, and that this decep- 
tion was the only cause of their not loving you. But 
what would you think of me, who came into your 
house, and deceived your children in this way, and 
turned their tender hearts from having any affection, 
any love towards you, by representing you as their 
enemy ? 

My friends, I do not suppose any man would be so 
wicked as to tell your children such a story, unless 
he was deceived himself. But, if I were so deceived 
as to think your children unsafe in your hands, I 
might honestly deceive your children. And it was 
just so with our teachers. They really thought that 
we were unsafe in God's hands ; they represented 



god's uncaused love to man. 159 



him as our enemy ; and while man believes this of 
God, it is impossible, in the very nature of things, 
for him to love his Maker. The result of this 
reasoning is simply this : that the whole reason why 
mankind do not love God is, because they do not 
know him to be a lovely being. They do not un- 
derstand his true character ; they have fixed on God 
a character which does not exist ; but, when you 
know his character, you will love him, as, when 
your deceived children are undeceived, they will 
love you. Unless they know your true character, it 
is impossible for them to love you. "When we make 
this discovery, we will suppose we have answered the 
question. "What is the reason why we do not love 
God ? Our answer is, because we do not know his 
nature, because mankind have been deceived as to 
his character. They believed him to be their 
enemy, whereas he is, in fact, their friend. 

I will not consume the precious time in describ- 
ing to you the impropriety that your humble servant 
discovers in the labors of so many men, who have 
come forward and preached to the world that man- 
kind were not safe in the hands of their Maker. 
My hearers, it makes my heart bleed to think how 



160 god's uncaused loye to man. 



inany sorrows and miseries are endured in conse* 
quenee of this deception ! But I have a sweet truth 
to console you. For God loved us when we were 
entirely destitute of love to him ; when we knew not 
his divine character, he was engaged in one steady, 
invariable action of divine benevolence; and the 
bosom of God, our author and our creator, was cher- 
ishing all his offspring. " Herein was love ; not 
that we loved God, but he loved us." 0, that 
you could hear the sentence, and understand its full 
import. Then would you let God have an everlasting 
obedience in all your hearts; then should I hear 
you exclaim, " In every situation and under every 
circumstance, my God loves me." What indescrib- 
able peace, what confidence, what rest of soul, would 
you constantly enjoy ! 

The next proposition in our text is, that God loved 
us when we did not love him; and a question 
necessarily arises concerning the justice of such a 
love. I name it because our opposers insist this is 
against his mercy, and even deny that he is disposed 
to save us. I ask you to come then to the consider- 
ation of this question, — Is it right for God to love 
mankind, when man does not love him ? Why," 



god's uncaused love to man. 161 

gays the hearer, " no doubt it is right." That, 
however, does not answer the question, though it 
may serve to assist us. It does not discover, you 
perceive, the nature of the justice of God, in loving 
us when we do not love him. But we can see the 
answer in the case I have already stated, of a child 
who is deceived, and who, because he is deceived, 
does not love his parent. Is it not perfectly right 
for you to love the child, notwithstanding this decep- 
tion? You would look upon the child and say, 
" That child is deceived ; it does not know my 
heart, — it does not know that my real will and 
pleasure is to guard its welfare." Certainly, in this 
case, you would love the child, and it would be per- 
fectly right for you to do so. I ask, would it not be 
wrong for you not to love it ? Very wrong. Then, 
my hearers, it is just in the nature of the thing for 
God to love his creatures. He knows that none 
would hate him, if they knew him. If they knew 
his real character, it would tend to put a confidence 
in him; it would tend to enlighten every under- 
standing, and bring all to the knowledge of himself ; 
and this is declared in the Scriptures to be eternal 
life. For, saith our divine Teacher, " This is life 
14* 



162 



god's uncaused lote to man, 



eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom thou hast sent." There is the perfect 
justice of God's loving the world. "We are under 
obligation to take care of our children, never remov- 
ing the hand of our providence from them on 
account of any imperfection in them, but always act- 
ing for their benefit. And so does our heavenly 
Father act towards all the creatures he has made. 
I ask you, does not this reasoning in the result come 
to this, that the cause of our not loviog God is, 
that we take him to be an enemy to the works of 
his hand ? Do we not reduce him below the creat- 
ures of the earth, and disallow God in heaven the 
virtues which we boast ? Thus we tear the beauti- 
ful garment of our heavenly Father's character, and 
represent it as unlovely. 

Thirdly. Love is always an active principle, and 
delights to manifest itself to the beloved object. So 
a parent who loves his child is always doing good to 
that child. If you love your neighbor, you will sig- 
nify that love by some act of kindness, of friendship, 
of affection. If any want, if any misery, is endured by 
the object of your affection, how soon do you fly to her 
relief ! how soon do you administer what is requi- 



god's uncaused loye to man. 163 

site and necessary ! So it is with God. " Herein 
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us." 
What did he do ? Did he manifest his love by any 
act ? Yes, he " loved us, and sent his Son to be a 
propitiation for our sins." Mankind were enveloped 
in transgression, were covered with a veil of sin ; yet 
God's love was such that he sent his Son to be a pro- 
pitiation for our sins. Here, then, observe, the text 
entirely disproves the doctrine that Jesus came here 
to suffer and die for us to appease God's wrath, to 
satisfy his justice, and to reconcile God to mankind. 
All such doctrine is lost forever, when we come into 
the light of the text under consideration. How so ? 
Because the love of God was the occasion of Christ's 
coming into the world. It would be an egregious 
error to conceive that God sent his Son into the 
world to die for the purpose of appeasing his wrath 
towards the world. Can I state an absurdity greater 
than to say God sent his Son into the world to die 
for the purpose of appeasing his own wrath against 
the world ? There is no sense in it. It is direct 
contradiction. It is abusing the use of our reason 
most perniciously. The coming of Christ into the 



164 god's uncaused love to man. 

world was a consequence, not a cause, of God's love 
to us. 

Fourthly. God loves us, " and sent his Son to be 
a propitiation for our sins." What is meant by pro- 
pitiation? He does what is stated by St. John, 
when he says, " Behold the Lamb of God, which 
taketh away the sin of the world." He does not 
take away God's wrath, for there is no such thing ; 
but he takes away the fault. Where is the fault ? 
In the creature. He takes away the sin. Where is 
the sin ? In the creature. The remedy is applied 
where the defect is. " The whole need not a physician, 
but they that are sick." Medicine is not necessary to 
remove the wrath of the physician, but to remove the 
disorder of the patient. I think you must under- 
stand this subject. It is difficult to conceive that 
the creature is to be tormented in order to be 
saved. Therefore, our Saviour says, " To this end 
was I born, and for this cause came I into the 
world, to bear witness to the truth." Will that 
take away the sins of man ? Yes. And I will 
show you the idea in the sin of your little children, 
which I have adduced. In what way is the sin of 
your child to be removed, when, in consequence of 



god's uncaused love to man. 165 

being deceived, it is brought to bate its parent ? By 
letting the child know your real character. The 
moment the child knows your real character, that is 
the death of all its hatred. The child then loves 
you ; it delights in you, by coming to the knowledge 
of your real character. Sin would be removed, this 
moment, from all mankind, if they knew the char- 
acter of God ; we should put our whole trust in him, 
and there would be no hatred in the human family 
towards God. Hence Paul says, " God commended 
his love towards us, in that while we were yet sin- 
ners Christ died for us." He died to manifest the 
love of God to his creature, man. And, when we 
see in Christ the character of our heavenly Father, 
it is then we adore him, then we love him, then we 
are disposed to honor his name. 

Now, what is the result of this ? Is it what our 
enemies say ? "No matter what we do ; religion is 
not worth possessing, if God loves us all ; and if God 
loves us all, we would not worship him, we would 
not read the Scriptures, we would not obey his 
commandments, we would not love one another." 
Is this the result ? Our enemies, never having been 
undeceived, really suppose that this doctrine has 



166 god's uncaused lote to man. 

such a tendency ; but we have the true result before 
us. If we believe that God so loved us as to send 
his Son to die for us, we ought to love one another. 
This is the result. This is the consequence of the 
doctrine ; and we. who have discovered his love to 
us, if we know that he loves those who do not love 
hirn, how reasonable is it that we should be led to 
love one another ! Shall I not love those objects 
whom my God loves ? Shall I not love all those for 
whose sins he sent his Son to be a propitiation ? 
Most assuredly. This is a consequence naturally 
to be expected, and necessarily, from the proposition 
we have laid down. In fact, it is impossible it 
should have any contrary effect upon our hearts. I 
do not say that all who profess the doctrine do love 
one another as they ought ; but I have the confi- 
dence to say that no one who possesses the real sen- 
timent, the real principle, in his heart, can do other- 
wise than love all mankind ; and here you will 
easily perceive that all the commandments of the 
gospel are to he obeyed. For when you love one 
another, and love God, what duty is there that will 
be neglected ? what duty is there that will not be 
fulfilled ? what is there that will not be done 



god's uncaused love to man. 167 

which ought to be done ? If this will not lead us to 
our duty, what will ? Will terror make us do our 
duty ? No ; for (referring once more to the simili- 
tude), what drove your children away? It was 
believing the story they were told of your character. 
What brought them back ? Knowing you were 
good. And know you not that it is " the goodness 
of God that leadeth you to repentance " ? Why, 
then, should not his goodness be preached to sinners ? 
Why should we be told such awful stories with 
regard to eternity ? Why should we be told that 
there is an everlasting state of burning, in order 
to induce us to love our Father in heaven? 0, in- 
congruous doctrine ! Let it be banished from the 
world, and let the angel of the covenant proclaim 
the love of God to mankind ; and may the world be 
converted ! Man will then love his fellow-man. 
You will all see that you are the children of God, 
that you are all the objects of God's love, and all 
the objects of our Saviour's grace. Believe this 
truth ; treasure it up in your hearts, let jour affec- 
tions move with assent ; love God and love one 
another, and the God of love and peace shall be 
with you ! 



SERMON X. 



Then shall he say to those on his left hand, De- 
part FROM ME, YE CURSED, INTO EVERLASTING FIRE, 
PREPARED FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS. — Matt. 

25 : 41. 

It is impossible that the audience can contemplate 
this subject without feeling sensiblj the solemnity 
which such words naturally inspire. 

When we take into consideration the common use 
which divines make of this passage of scripture, 
when we are seriously called upon to consider it as a 
subject of discourse, it is expected that every mind 
will regard it as a subject of the very first import- 
ance. 

My friends, we feel no disposition to enter into a 
discussion of this portion of scripture with the spirit 
of a sect or party. Such a spirit would take from the 
importance of the subject ; and we would deprecate 
nothing more. If the common explanation of this 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OE A JUDGMENT. 169 

passage be correct, it is no matter of party. It is 
an awful calamity, proceeding from heaven ; and 
every individual in the world is concerned in it. 
Party has nothing to do with it ; sect, name and 
denomination, are entirely out of the question. It 
is no better for one denomination than it is for 
another ; it is no worse for one denomination than 
for another. Our interest lies entirely in knowing 
what it truly means. "We have no interest in 
explaining it to mean something that it does not 
really mean; we have no interest in withholding 
from it the application which the Saviour designed 
for it. 

You will permit me to state, what you are very 
well acquainted with, namely, the common doctrine 
supposed to be supported by this text. The common 
use of this passage is to apply it to what is called 
the last judgment ; and the last judgment, it is 
supposed, will take place when all mankind, who 
have lived in past ages, shall be raised from the 
dead. At the same time, the inhabitants of the 
earth that are then alive will be brought to judg- 
ment, with all those who then shall be raised from 
the dead. Then there will be a dissolution of this 
15 



170 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 

material system, — of the sun, the moon, and stars, 

— and mankind will then and there be judged — 
all of them — exactly according to their conduct 
here in this mortal state ; and if they are found 
justified, they will be saved in eternal glory ; while 
all the rest — supposed to be vastly the greater part 

— will be turned off to eternal misery. I have only 
stated this subject in its summary; there is not 
time to go into its ramifications, or to consider it 
with regard to the pernicious bearing it has upon 
society. 

But, my friendly hearers, I feel disposed to invite 
your serious and candid attention to this question, 
namely, Does this passage of scripture justly apply 
to such a subject ? And, if our Saviour intended it 
to apply to such a subject, is it not to be expected 
that, somewhere in the connection, these things will 
be indicated ? Certainly. Now, if, upon examina- 
tion, we find none of these things indicated, what 
must be our conclusion ? This : That, whatever it 
might mean, it could not mean what has been gen- 
erally supposed. Now, that these words relate to 
no such subject, we infer from the following con- 
siderations : 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 171 

First, there is no intimation, in all the connection, 
that this judgment is the last judgment that ever 
will take place. You cannot consider this fact as a 
matter of indifference, Upon what authority have 
our divines declared this to be the last judgment ? 
I do not make this inquiry invidiously, with any 
desire or design of casting reflections on my fellow- 
creatures. I make it because the subject demands 
it. By what authority have they told us that this 
was an account of the last judgment ? There is 
nothing said about the last judgment here, nor first 
judgment, nor any judgment numerically. So 
much, then, we must dispense with, and say they do 
this without authority. In the second place, I wish 
to inform you that there is no hint given, in this 
connection, with regard to the dissolution of this 
material system. There is no indication whether 
this earth will remain afterwards as it is now, or not. 
There is nothing of the kind suggested. Upon what 
authority, then, is this all declared ? In the third 
place, there is not one word said, in this connection, 
about the resurrection of the dead. Is it said that 
any of the human family will be raised from the dead, 
to come to this judgment ? Not a word about it, 



172 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OE A JUDGMENT. 

Now, is it possible that men of learning, of piety, 
and of honesty, can make such an application of this 
subject themselves ? No, my friends, they do not 
even dream of such things ; but men of piety, learn- 
ing and honesty, have made this mistake by the 
force of tradition and education, influences little 
understood by the common mind. They never 
thought of asking themselves the question whether 
these things were true. But all these questions 
must be asked, all these queries must be put, and all 
these subjects must be looked into and canvassed, 
before we can consent to anything so incongruous. 
Is it such a trifling thing to throw down the works 
of God, that it may be done with impunity, without 
proof, without evidence ? No ; it is too weighty a 
subject to be treated in this light and incautious 
manner. These sentiments have done too much 
mischief already to be treated with superficial 
observation. 

Now, that this passage does not apply to such a 
subject as has been mentioned, we consider to be 
very fairly proved by the total silence, through the 
context, with respect to such a subject. But I shall 
prove, my friends, another thing, to put the matter 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OP A JUDGMENT. 173 

beyond all doubt and scruple in your minds. And 
I have confidence in saying as much as this, that I 
shall now prove, by the connection in which this 
passage is found, that the fulfilment of what is here 
stated took place in the city in which it was spoken, 
and in the lifetime of some then present. If we 
prove this, we overthrow all the use our divines 
have made of this text. If we do not prove it, we 
fall short of what we undertake, and you are to go 
away dissatisfied. My friends, I do really regret 
this subject is so long as to lead me to be appre- 
hensive of tiring your patience before we shall get 
through it j and yet I feel encouraged on account 
of the plainness of it. 

The subject under consideration commences in the 
twenty-third chapter of this gospel, and continues 
through the whole of the twenty-fourth, and through 
the whole of the twenty-fifth; and no man ever 
understood it as it ought to be understood, unless 
he had carefully read all the connection. At the 
conclusion of the twenty-third chapter, our Saviour 
was speaking, in the temple, to the Jews, concern- 
ing the awful calamities which were coming upon 
them, when they had filled up the measure of their 
15* 



174 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 

iniquities. In this discourse, part of which is re- 
corded in the conclusion of the twenty-third chapter, 
our Saviour had given the people to understand that 
the city and temple would be destroyed. At the 
conclusion of that address, he expresses the feelings 
of his heart for the wickedness of the city of Jerusa- 
lem ; and breaks out, " 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them 
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have 
gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gather eth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you, 
desolate. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me 
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that com- 
eth in the name of the Lord." He droppeth this 
hint, that the time would come when they would see 
him, and should say, " Blessed is he that cometh in 
the name of the Lord." Now he leaves the temple, 
and goes out of it, and is going out of the city. His 
disciples come immediately to show him (mark the 
little calculation they had !) how the temple was con- 
structed. It was as much as to say to him, " You 
prophesy the destruction of this temple. Look at 
these massy rocks, this immense pile, and consider 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 175 

whether it is reasonable that all these will be thrown 
down." Our Saviour says, " There shall not be one 
stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." 
He then goes out of the city, to the Mount of 
Olives, which commanded a prospect of the whole 
place; and there he sat himself down. His disciples 
come privately, and ask him, " When shall these 
things be ? What shall be the sign of thy coming, 
and of the end of the world ? " The Teacher pro- 
ceeds directly to answer this question. My friends, 
it has, no doubt, already struck your minds that we 
have made a mistake. It is very evident, from the 
question the disciples stated, that they had the end 
of the world in view ; and, therefore, when Jesus 
answered them, he answered that inquiry ; and, 
therefore, he must have had the end of the world in 
view. It is granted. They did ask him, and he 
did answer them concerning the end of the world. 
But, mark one thing. The end of the world here 
means nothing concerning what people generally 
mean by that phrase. It has no reference to any 
such subject. 

I am now going to intrude upon your patience, 
with a design of showing you that our Saviour, in 



176 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 



answering this question, alludes to nothing which 
did not actually take place in that generation in 
which he lived. " What ! do you niean," says the 
hearer, " that the end of the world then took place? " 
Yes, I mean the end of the world, as here men* 
tioned, did then actually take place. " Why, it is 
impossible," says the hearer : " the world still ex- 
ists ! " Let your humble servant read, and you will 
see the world was at an end, but not in the sense in 
which these words are generally applied. 

This I am to make plain by reading. See chapter 
twenty-four. Jesus wishes them to take heed ; and 
he says, " Take heed that no man deceive you; for 
many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; 
and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars, 
and rumors of wars ; see that ye be not troubled ; 
for all these things must come to pass, but the end 
is not yet." The end of what ? The end of the 
ivorld ! The end of the world is not yet ! It is 
evident he meant the end of that world they asked 
him about. " For nation shall rise against nation, 
and kingdom against kingdom ; and there shall be 
famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers 
places. All these are the beginning of sorrow. 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OE A JUDGMENT. 177 

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and 
shall kill you : and ye shall be hated of all nations, 
for my name's sake. And then shall many be of- 
fended, and betray one another, and shall hate one 
another. And many false prophets shall rise, and 
shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall 
abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he 
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved." The end of what ? The end of the world? 
Yes, the end of the world. " And this gospel shall 
be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all 
nations ; and then shall the end come." What ! the 
end of the world ? Yes, the end of the world ! 
The end of the same world which the disciples 
inquired about. Now, he goes on : " When ye, 
therefore, shall - see the abomination of desolation, 
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy 
place (whoso readeth let him understand), then let 
them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." 
What ! will it be possible to flee into the mountains 
when the world shall be destroyed ? " Let him 
which is on the house-top not come down to take 
anything out of his house : neither let him which is 
in the field return back to take his clothes. And 



178 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OE A JUDGMENT. 

woe unto them that are with child, and to them that 
give suck-, in those days ! But pray ye that your 
flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath 
day." 

I wish to have you judge whether our Saviour 
here was speaking of what our divines mean by the 
end of the world. What good would it do them to 
flee into the mountains, if it were such an end of the 
world as they describe ? What good could it do 
not to be obliged to flee in the winter, or on the 
Sabbath ? Is there the least possible meaning in all 
this, according to the common understanding of our 
divines ? But, if our Saviour meant by it the 
destruction of Jerusalem, by its being environed with 
the Roman armies, — if he meant that the Roman 
standard should be in that temple, — it is all per- 
fectly well understood. Then, it would be awful 
for females, and particularly those in such circum- 
stances as he mentioned, to be overtaken with such 
usage as might be expected from the soldiers. 
" For then shall be great tribulation, such as was 
not since the beginning of the world to this time ; 
no, nor ever shall be." See Matt. 24 : 22—27. " For 
wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OE A JUDGMENT. 179 

gathered together.' ' That is, the Roman eagles. 
"And immediately after the tribulation of those 
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall 
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from 
heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be 
shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the 
Son of man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes 
of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of 
man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power 
and great glory. And he shall send his angels with 
a great sound of a trumpet ; and they shall gather 
together his elect from the four winds, from one end 
of heaven to the other." Remember this language 
is all in the connection, and all relates to the same 
subject. 

" Now learn a parable of the fig- tree : When his 
branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye 
know that summer is nigh ; so likewise ye, when 
ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, 
even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this 

GENERATION shall not pUSS TILL ALL THESE THINGS 

be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but my word shall not pass away." My hearers, 
do you now understand ? Here is given an account 



180 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 

of the end of the world ; and, as our Saviour de- 
clared, these things took place in that generation. 
" But," says the hearer, " what does it mean by say- 
ing that it was the end of the world ? " My friends, 
it means nothing more nor less than the end of the 
Jewish dispensation and hierarchy, in which the 
Jews received the law by Moses. This is doing no 
violence to the passage. The very meaning of the 
original is dispensation. The same word is used by 
our Saviour, when he says to his disciples " I will 
be with you always, even to the end of the world." 
This is the same word, and it here means the end 
of the gospel dispensation ; and in the passage un- 
der consideration it means the end of the legal dis- 
pensation, at the destruction of the house of Israel. 
Did not our Saviour show that it was in his power 
to fulfil all his words on that subject ? and have they 
not been completely fulfilled ? for the Jews, as a 
people, have been in everlasting torment ever since 
their destruction. And, if you will turn over the 
historic page, you will see how awfully those cul- 
prits have been visited, — exactly with all the curses 
that have been pronounced by Moses, and also with 
all our Saviour denounced against them. The J ews 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 181 

were placed on the left hand, when they were to be 
miserably destroyed by the Eomans ; and, if we go 
further, we find this their calamity limited and con- 
fined to the present state of existence. Turn to the 
twenty- sixth chapter of Leviticus. Read all that 
occurs there; read also the twenty-eighth and 
twenty-ninth chapters of Deuteronomy, and you 
will find that Moses never alluded in any of his 
writings, he never suggested, that the Jewish peo- 
ple should be punished in another world. He told 
them that they should be punished by captivity, 
by famine, by pestilence, but he never alluded to 
anything beyond this state of existence ; and per- 
mit me here to observe, when upon this very sub- 
ject, what St. Luke says (Luke 21 : 22), — "For 
these be the days of vengeance, that all things which 
are written may be fulfilled." .Our Saviour never 
denounced any curses that were not written in the 
law. He never denounced any judgment in another 
world. He came not to destroy the law or the 
prophets, but to fulfil the law. 

"But," says the hearer, " if this language mean 
only the misery of the Jews, why is the word fire 
made use of? " " Everlasting fire, prepared for the 
16 



182 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 

devil and his angels." The word fire is frequently 
made use of in scripture to represent misery, de- 
struction, and torment. Particularly as we read in 
Ezekiel (ch. 22 : 18—22, inclusive), — " Son of 
man, the house of Israel is to me become dross : all 
they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the 
midst of the furnace ; they are even the dross of 
silver. I will gather you, and blow upon you in the 
fire of my wrath ; and ye shall know that I the 
Lord have poured out my fury upon you." (See 
the passage in full.) And, in the language of our 
Saviour under consideration, spoken to the Jewish 
people, he no doubt alludes to the same thing, and 
means 'they shall be gathered together, and suffer all 
the torments and afflictions which were written in 
their law against them by their lawgiver. Now, turn 
again to the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus, where 
God promises, after this destruction, after this visit- 
ation, if their hearts repent, and they turn to him, 
and acknowledge him, that he will fulfil his cove- 
nant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with J acob ; and 
our Saviour, in the conclusion of his denunciation, 
says, " Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye say, 
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 183 

We shall not much longer detain you. We shall 
say one word more before we close, and that shall be 
said to remove any objection which some may sus- 
tain in supposing that we have not comprehended 
the whole subject. Now, the hearer may say, " I 
cannot understand why Christ should allude to his 
coming with his angels and in the glory of his 
Father, before that event took place, if it did not 
mean when he should come at the end of the world. " 
I have an answer to this, which I am persuaded will 
be satisfactory to every one who shall understand it. 
We see that our Saviour said, all these things shall 
take place in that generation. And in the six- 
teenth chapter of St. Matthew, towards the end of 
the chapter, he says, " For the Son of man shall come 
in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; and then 
he shall reward every man according to his works. 
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here 
which shall not taste of death till they see the Son 
of man coming in his kingdom." That is to say, it 
would be in the lifetime of those who were present. 
This is represented exactly in the same way in the 
last part of the eighth chapter and in the first part 
of the ninth chapter of the gospel according to St. 



184 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 

Mark, — " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and 
my words in this adulterous and sinful genera- 
tion, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, 
when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the 
holy angels." The same will be found in the ninth 
chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke ; in all 
of which we have the assertion that some of those 
standing there should not taste of death till they 
saw the kingdom of God. 

Now, all this, if carefully gone over, will show 
you that the time to which our Saviour alluded was 
the generation in which he lived. I will only refer 
you to these passages : Read the latter part of the 
twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew, the whole of 
the twenty-fourth, the eighth and ninth chapters 
of Mark, the twenty-first chapter of St. Luke, and 
the twenty-third chapter of the prophet Jeremiah. 
Look carefully into these passages ; study them in 
your families ; and you will be satisfied with this 
one truth, namely, that the subject under consid- 
eration was never designed by our blessed Saviour 
to record the awful doctrine taught us by Christian 
divines ; and I cannot help congratulating you on 
feeling a conviction on this subject. What a relief 



EEPvOXEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 185 

will it be to your souls to be delivered from such 
an awful foreboding;! The calamities our blessed 
Saviour alluded to were calamities which would 
fall on Jerusalem in that generation ; and they 
did so. But he never did utter one word about the 
awful punishments hereafter which are supposed 
by our divines to be threatened in this passage. 
When he was going- to the cross, multitudes of ten- 
der females followed him, weeping for his fate ; and 
he turned and said to them, " Daughters of Jeru- 
salem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and 
for your children. For, behold the days are com- 
ing, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the 
barren, and the wombs that never bear, &c. Then 
shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us ; 
to the hills, Cover us." Why did he not tell them 
to weep for themselves and children, for that they 
must be banished from God, and burnt in the flames 
of hell as long as heaven should exist ? Why did 
he talk about the approach of the enemy and the 
destruction of their temple, and say nothing about 
the torments that awaited them in another world ? 
It was for this very good reason, — the former was 
in his mind, the latter was not. He nerer thought 
16* 



186 ERRONEOUS VIEWS OE A JUDGMENT. 

of any such thing. No, blessed be God, there is no 
eternal destruction for the children of men ! Will 
you say, " He uses particularly the word everlast- 
ing " ? If you will read, you will find that many 
of those things which are called everlasting had 
their whole existence in time. The land of Canaan 
was an everlasting possession to the house of Israel, 
the covenant of Levi was everlasting ; but they 
were not exdless. Everlasting means duration for 
a long time. There is nothing said here about a 
future state of existence. You can examine this, 
and make the subject familiar to yourselves. Do 
not believe those who tell you that it is dangerous 
to do this. It is dangerous only to BIGOTRY. 
There is no danger in inquiring after the truth. 
Those who disobey God's commandments, who abuse 
his word, who trample his precepts under their feet, 
shall meet with trouble and sorrow ; and then this 
passage is fulfilled, — "All transgressions and diso- 
bedience must meet with a due recompense of re- 
ward." This we know by experience, and we need 
not go into eternity for it. It occurs in the present 
time. Those who do well are blessed, and those 
who do evil are cursed. Those who believe the 



ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF A JUDGMENT. 187 

truth. DO enter into rest ; but those who icorship 
the beast and his image are wretched and misera- 
ble. But, my dear friends, when you hear the 
word of God, you will treasure it up and obey it ; 
make it dear to your souls, follow the religion of 
Christ Jesus, and you will be blessed in the same. 



SERMON XI.* 



And I WILL GIVE YOU pastors according to mine heart, 

WHICH SHALL FEED TOTJ WITH KNOWLEDGE AND UNDER- 
STANDING. — Jeremiah 3:15. 

In this text is contained a divine promise that the 
gospel shall be preached to men ; and by this prom- 
ise we are informed that our heavenly Father, in the 
gift of this ministry, would not make it subject to 
the wisdom of the world which cometh to naught, 
but would regulate it according to his own wisdom, 
as in the text, — "I will give you pastors according 
to mine heart." Thus it is understood that the 
ministry which God appoints is appointed not only 
by his wisdom, but is endowed with that wisdom, 
that temper and that grace, which is according to 
the will and disposition of God, — " I will give you 
pastors according to mine heart." According to the 

* This discourse was preached in the saloon of Wash- 
ington Hall, to an audience of about seven thousand per- 
sons. 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



189 



text read for consideration, the ministry itself, and 
its pastors, being appointed after God's own heart, 
shall feed the people with knowledge and under- 
standing. It implies that the pastors should preach 
those things which they know to be true, and which 
the people can understand ; for we learn from the 
text that they shall be endowed with understanding 
and with knowledge ; - — and, being thus endued, 
they must know that they never feed the people 
with understanding, unless they preach to them 
what they can understand. 

Now, in the first place, my friendly hearers, when 
God appoints pastors to the people according to his 
heart, they are educated by his wisdom, they are 
actuated by his will, and they are employed en- 
tirely in the promulgation of that which is consist- 
ent with the mind of him that sent them. When 
the wisdom of the world appoints a ministry, it ap- 
points a ministry according to its own heart and its 
own wisdom. If any church appoints a ministry, 
it appoints it according to its own heart, and ac- 
cording to its own interests. Thus we may say 
(and I hope without giving offence), that if any par- 
ticular theological school appoints a ministry and 



190 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



sends forth ministers, both the ministry and the 
ministers will be according to the wisdom, the will 
and disposition, of that theological school. Such a 
school as the theological institution at Jerusalem, 
where Gamaliel was the doctor or teacher, would 
furnish such a ministry, and such a minister as Saul 
of Tarsus, the person who was an enemy to Jesus 
Christ, an enemy to the gospel, an enemy to all that 
named the name of Christ ; and yet Saul was faith- 
ful to the theological school that appointed him, and 
endeavored to promote the honor, dignity and au- 
thority, of those that sent him forth. None but 
God himself, through the mediation of his blessed 
Son Jesus, could make such a minister as St. Paul, 
who was converted from the school and doctrine in 
which he had been educated, and was adopted as the 
child of Jesus Christ, — adopted into the school of 
our great Redeemer ; and, as before he had no other 
interest but the interest of the church that ap- 
pointed him. so now he has no other interest but the 
interest of the Almighty, who converted him and 
appointed him to the labors of the gospel, whereby 
he now becomes a disciple of the meek and lowly 
Jesus. He has no interest to promote or serve but 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



191 



the interest of the crucified Redeemer ; and, being 
brought into his service, he boldly proclaims the 
gospel of the Son of God. I would add, it is very 
practicable and possible, from motives which have a 
peculiar influence on the human mind, for an indi- 
vidual to appoint himself "to the work of the minis- 
try, and set himself 'up as a teacher; and he will 
tell you it is dangerous not to believe and not to 
receive his preaching as truth, because he is a minis- 
ter after God's heart. How shall we know whether 
he is or not ? Remember the words of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, — 61 He that speaketh of himself 
seeketh his own glory" My friends, you may 
always know a false teacher from a true one. It is 
the easiest thing in the world. How will you know 
him ? He will always set himself up above God. 
He will always represent himself to be more lovely, 
if possible, than he will allow our Saviour to be. He 
will tell you how much he would do to save you. 
He would lay down his life to save one poor soul ; 
but he will not allow the Redeemer, who did lay 
down his life for us, the power of saving you, Xow, 
which is best, the preacher, or his master ? Why, 
according to his own account, the preacher. Yes, 



192 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



he is the best himself ; because, in the room of be- 
ing in the cause of his Divine Master, he is in his 
own cause. And, instead of endeavoring to get 
people to love the Lord Jesus Christ, he is inter- 
ested in making them love himself ; for he is holding 
hiroself up as being more interested in their salva- 
tion than he will allow the Redeemer to be. My 
hearers, there is no difficulty in determining this 
question, in distinguishing a minister of the Lord 
from a minister of the wisdom of this world. The 
minister of this world's wisdom has not the cause 
of God, nor of our Redeemer, to promote. Mankind, 
in their carnal hearts, have not the interest of the 
gospel to promote. They will persuade you to 
believe that in God's hands you are not safe ; that 
all God has done, that all Jesus Christ has done, for 
you, will not secure you, but, if you will subscribe to 
their creed, you will be secure. Now, really, these 
people stand directly between God and the human 
family ; and they try to direct all our attention to 
themselves, and not to God. 

I will name a few things, which I humbly ask 
you to hear, and charitably to consider ; for I call 
God to witness, I feel no enmity towards any name 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



193 



denomination or sect, under heaven : but I have a 
certain object in view, which comes in contact with 
their errors. I shall lay before you some of them. 
I shall present to your notice certain things preached 
and held up as doctrine in the Christian church, and 
as the doctrine of the gospel, which are indispensa- 
ble articles of faith. I will not undertake to prove 
them false, but will only ask, Do those who preach 
them know them to be true ? I will ask, at the 
same time, this question, Do they understand them, 
and are the people capable of understanding them ? 
and if we are convinced that no man can understand 
such doctrines, then we know that they never could 
give people knowledge. 

In the first place, What is so difficult to believe 
as what is called in Orthodox divinity an indispens- 
able article of the Christian faith, namely, the fall 
of man through Adam's transgression, the conse- 
quence of which extends to all posterity ? The 
offence of Adam was not visited upon himself alone; 
but all the generations that existed, or shall exist, 
are made liable, not only to all the miseries of this 
life, and death itself, but to the pains of hell for- 
ever. My friends, I say I have not now an oppor* 
17 



194 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



tunity to disprove this doctrine. I will not now 
labor to disprove it ; I shall only ask, Was this doc- 
trine ever known to be a fact by any man living ? 
Did ever any man possess such a knowledge as to 
come forward and say he knew this doctrine to be a 
fact ? I ask again, Was there ever a man in the 
world who could understand it, if it were a fact ? 
Was it ever explained that God, who is not the 
friend of sin, made all his human creatures, from 
the transgression of Adam, liable to sin to all eter- 
nity ? Because, without a miracle, it could not be 
that the fall of Adam would entail misery on all 
mankind. It must be by a miracle. But was it 
ever understood by any human being ? " No," says 
the hearer, " I never could understand it." No, 
my hearers ; and those who preach such a doctrine 
do not understand this doctrine better than you. 
There never was a man who did. I am saying 
nothing, at present, about its not being true ; but I 
say all those who preach it never knew the fact 
themselves ; they never understood it themselves, 
nor made anybody else understand it. It is just as 
much in the dark now, as when it was invented by 
the wisdom of the world. 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



195 



Another doctrine, or point of doctrine, considered 
as indispensable, is that which is termed particular 
election and reprobation ; in which it is taught 
that God from all eternity elected a few individuals 
here and there, and ordained that they should enjoy 
everlasting life and happiness in the world to come, 
while, by his own wisdom, he dooms far the greater 
part to everlasting misery ; and all this was fixed 
and determined in his own mind before man was 
created. I will not attempt to prove such a doc- 
trine false, because it would be a kind of reflection 
on your good sense. If such a doctrine were true, 
was there ever a man that knew it to be so ? and I 
ask again, Was it ever explained to the understand- 
ing of any person, so that he could understand it, 
as a matter of fact ? No ; for those who proclaim 
it tell you that it is one of the hidden mysteries of 
Almighty God. I should rather say, it is one of 
the mysteries of iniquity. I say it is a proposition 
which no man could ever understand ; and no man 
who ever preached it to the people fed them with 
knowledge while he was preaching it. 

Another doctrine, that has been held in equal esti- 
mation in the Christian church by doctors of divin- 



196 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



it j, is this : that we, as we come into the world, are 
naturally opposed to our Creator, and all his com- 
mands. My friends, if this were a fact, is there a 
man in all the world who could say he knew it ? 
Is there a man who could say he understood it ? 
No. Were such a doctrine a truth, it is impossible 
that it should be known or understood by man. I 
will call your attention to the consideration of the 
testimony of the blessed Jesus, who, on account of a 
certain controversy, called to him a little child ; and 
he said to his disciples, " Except ye be converted, 
and become as this little child, ye shall in no case 
enter into the kingdom of heaven." "What was the 
condition of the child ? According to the doctrine 
I have just mentioned, it was opposed to God. It 
was a being entirely deprived of communion with 
God. And yet, my dear hearers, our Saviour was 
speaking of his disciples' being converted, and 
becoming like a little child, in order to enter the 
kingdom of heaven. I ask you, Can you reconcile 
such testimony with the common doctrine of the 
depraved disposition of little children ? No, it 
cannot be reconciled, and people are not fed with 
knowledge or understanding when they are taught 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



197 



such doctrine. It will not be doubted that little 
children are in a state of simple nature ; and yet 
our Saviour says, " Suffer little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven. " 

Another doctrine that has been held in equal 
estimation by the Christian church, which has been 
taught by doctors of divinity, and which, of course, 
demands our notice here, is concerning the exposure 
of all mankind to the pains of hell forever, in con- 
sequence of the transgression of Adam ; and yet the 
eternal security of some, according to the election 
of grace. Do not these doctors say that from all 
eternity some were elected to everlasting life ? 
Yes. Did they understand this ? Did they 
understand that those who were elected from all 
eternity to everlasting life were made liable to the 
pains of hell forever, by the transgression of Adam ? 
No ; they did not understand it, because that would 
make it appear that the Almighty was inconsistent, 
Did they understand what they said, when they 
intimated that not only those who were not elected, 
but even those who were elected, were doomed, from 
all eternity, to endure endless misery, for Adam's 
17* 



198 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



transgression ? They certainly did not, because 
one proposition is in diametrical opposition to the 
other ; and when this doctrine is taught to the 
people, they are neither fed with knowledge nor 
understanding. 

Another doctrine, in intimate connection with the 
others I have mentioned, amounts to this : that, as 
we exist naturally, and were brought forth into the 
world, it is not in our power to think of or to per- 
form one single action well pleasing to God ; that 
we sin in everything we do, till we are regenerated, 
or born again. Is this doctrine understood ? Is it 
a fact that, when a man takes care of his family, 
when he loves his companion, when he feeds and 
clothes all those who are dependent on him, that he 
cannot, that he does not, do right ? Is there any- 
thing like this in the doctrine of the Scriptures, or 
the word of God ? Xo. Does any man understand 
it ? Xo man. Then no man can be fed with 
knowledge by it. 

Another doctrine which I wish to name is one 
universally contended for in the Christian church. 
It is, that God has seen fit, in his wisdom, not to 
punish sin in this world, where it is committed, — he 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



199 



does not reward virtue here, where it is practised, 
— but in another world, where we hope to be more 
virtuous than we are here. Do the clergy know 
God does not punish wickedness in this world ? No. 
1 have a question to put to those who administer 
the penal laws of our country, and also to those who 
make them. I would ask them whether, in their 
view, we can do best in society without the law or 
with it. " Why, with it, to be sure." Yery well. 
Is not the administration of public justice declared 
in the Scriptures to be of God ? and are not rulers 
ministers of God for good, to be a terror to evil 
doers, and a praise to those who do well, and who 
hold not the sword in vain ? Are these laws and 
these punishments according to the wisdom of God ? 
So far as they are just, they certainly are. God 
has ordained laws on earth by which vice is pun- 
ished, and we see the wicked are miserable beings 
in the present time. Every day we are under the 
necessity of punishing those who commit crime, and 
every day's experience convinces us that the way of 
the transgressor is hard. " There is no peace to the 
wicked, saith my God." Is it true that man is 
made happy by living in sin ? Is it a fact that the 



200 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



righteous live in misery, wretchedness and want, in 
this world ? You know to the contrary. When 
your eyes are open, when you inspect the state of 
society, and look around you, you see that those who 
live in peace and happiness are the virtuous part of 
the community ; they are those who honor God by 
obeying his commandments. 

Look at those who are destitute of the enjoyments 
of this world, — who are crushed under misery, 
wretchedness and degradation. Has righteousness 
brought them to this ? Has a godly life brought 
them to this ? " I have been young," says the 
Psalmist, " and now I am old ; yet have I not seen 
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 
If you will look into the miseries of this description, 
and see the dreadful calamities which afflict the 
wicked, you will see that God has inseparably con- 
nected sin with misery, and righteousness with hap- 
piness, in the present life. Hence, then, when you 
are told that sin is not punished in this world, you 
must know it is false ; and when you are told virtue 
does not make a man happy in this world, you are 
told what every man knows to be untrue. When 



FEAST 05 1 KNOWLEDGE. 



201 



this doctrine is preached , the people are not fed with 
knowledge or understanding . 

And lastly, upon this subject, I will mention 
another thing which is considered indispensable, 
according to the creed of the church, namely, that 
God who made us will make a great portion of us 
eternally miserable ; and you cannot be a suitable 
member of the Christian church, it is supposed, 
unless you believe this fundamental article of their 
creed ; or, being a member, you must be excluded 
unless you continue to hold it sacred and true. Is 
this honorable to God ? Is it honorable to his 
creatures ? How awful is the idea ! To say that 
God will employ himself, or, what is the same thing, 
his agent, in tormenting the creatures he has made ! 
If this be honorable to God, I ask the question, 
What is dishonorable to him ? Many of you, my 
hearers, are parents ; and could I dishonor you more, 
on my return home, than to say the parents in the 
city of Philadelphia, out of a large family, selected 
two or three as favorites, and made the rest misera- 
ble ? It would be asked, What do they do this for ? 
For their honor, and for the gratification of the two 
or three favorites ! They could not enjoy happiness 



202 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



or felicity, if their brothers and sisters were blessed 
as much as themselves ! I could not dishonor you 
more than by doing this ; and, thank God, I could 
not tell a greater falsehood ! But, when divines tell 
you this story about God, such is the force of educa- 
tion and superstition, that you find no fault with it. 
But it has got to be time for people to open their 
eyes and ask, "Where have we been walking?" 
May God forgive those who have taught such a 
doctrine ; and may he obliterate it from the human 
heart, and take it away from society ! ^ 

I shall refrain from remarking on these subjects, 
to ask your attention, a few moments, to what you 
can understand. Our text says, " They shall feed 
you with knowledge and with understanding." Our 
blessed Saviour went before his disciples. He taught 
them in his own school ; he taught them how to 
teach ; and what was the doctrine he preached to 
the people ? 4 4 Ye have heard that it was said by 
them of old time, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and 
hate thine enemy : but I say unto you, Love your 
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully 



* See Note E. 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE, 



203' 



use you, and persecute you ; that ye may be the 
children of your Father which is in heaven : for he 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 

Do, my friends, let me compare this with the doc- 
trine of our divines. Did you ever hear them 
preach on personal election, and undertake to demon- 
strate it by such a simile as this ? No, they never 
preach it ; and the reason is, it would make God 
better than themselves ! But our blessed Saviour 
preached the universality and impartiality of the 
blessings of Providence, in order to discover the 
excellency of his heavenly Father, that we might 
know his nature, and always love him. You need 
not go to the creed of man to find out the excellency 
of that knowledge and understanding wherewith 
Christ fed his disciples. Your blessed Saviour 
comes to the affection of your hearts, — " What man 
is there, if his son ask bread, will he give him a 
stone ? or, if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? 
If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good 
things to your children, how much more will your 
Father in heaven give good things to them that ask 
him ! " Did you ever hear similes like this offered 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



to prove the doctrine of the church ? No ; but I 
can demonstrate what I say by your own hearts, 
You know you take a pleasure and delight in doing 
good to those whom you love ; and so it is with 
our Father in heaven. But our divines never 
preach in this way. 

Let us now take the similes by which the gospel 
of Jesus is represented in the Scriptures. " He 
shall be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the sal- 
vation of God to the end of the earth." The gospel 
is compared to a river of pure water, wherein 
he that thirsteth may drink. It is compared to 
bread, of which a man may eat and never die. How 
sensibly these similes are calculated to instruct us ! 
How much Tbetter are these sentiments calculated to 
inspire us with reverence and love for our heavenly 
Father ! 0, could you believe this, how would your 
hearts be delighted, how would God live in your 
affections and esteem ! But, when he is represented 
to be a tyrant, preparing everlasting torments for 
his children, you cannot love him, you cannot 
adore him ! You would never cease to say, " I can- 
not love the God who made me ; for he has decreed 
that my dear children, and the companion of my 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 205 

bosom, shall welter in everlasting misery ! " God 
forbid that any poor soul should believe such a doc- 
trine ; and God forbid that any man or woman liv- 
ing in the world should from henceforth subscribe 
to such a creed ! The disciples never preached such 
a doctrine. They never preached a doctrine differ- 
ent from their Master. They went into the congre- 
gations to preach the love of God to the world, 
— " For where sin abounded grace did much more 
abound ; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even 
so might grace reign through righteousness unto 
eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." " \Yehave 
an advocate with the Father, J esus Christ the right- 
eous ; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not 
for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. " 
"God our Saviour will have all men to be saved, 
and come to the knowledge of the truth ; for there 
is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, 
the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself a ransom 
for all, to be testified in due time." " That in the 
dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather 
together in one all things in Christ, both which are 

in heaven and which are on earth, even in him." 
18 



206 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE. 



" For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all 
be made alive." 

So I might go on, my friendly hearers, and recite 
the language of divine inspiration ; and every sen- 
tence, every principle of the gospel, harmonizes with 
this doctrine of God's love. And what is the con- 
clusion of this doctrine ? It is this, — " Since God 
so loved us, we ought also to love one another." It 
is declared, in one of the passages I have recited, 
that God will have all men to be saved. How, then, 
can you reconcile this with the doctrine of our Ortho- 
dox divines, that God from all eternity elected only 
a few to be saved, and decreed that by far the 
greater portion of the human family should be sent 
to endless misery, as long as his throne should 
endure ? You must know yourselves that this is 
dishonorable to God, — it is dishonorable to man. 

In the result, it is the very design of the gospel 
to introduce mankind to peace and happiness. The 
coming of our Saviour was not to appease the wrath 
of Heaven towards man, but to introduce to us 
"love to God, and good will towards man." This 
is the doctrine of God ; this is the doctrine of our 
Saviour ; and I charge you never to believe any doc 



FEAST OF KNOWLEDGE, 



207 



trine dishonorable to God. Any doctrine which, can 
be reconciled with God's universal goodness is safe 
to be believed, because it gives peace and comfort in 
believing ; but a doctrine which cannot be reconciled 
with the goodness of God gives no peace to the 
believer, and therefore cannot be true, 

May God grant, then, that you, my friendly and 
much-respected hearers, may be fed with knowledge 
and understanding ; and that you may use them to 
the glory of God, to the honor of Jesus Christ, and 
to the peace and happiness of yourselves 1 



NOTES. 



Note A. See page 79 

The Mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the 
Prince of Peace. — Some have regretted that there had 
not been a critical explanation of these phrases, as 
applied to the Messiah, or Son of God : but, not being 
contained in the words selected as the subject of dis- 
course, it could hardly have been expected, especially as 
the sole object of the discourse was to show that this Son, 
in whatever light he may be considered, was given for 
the benefit of mankind ; and it must be obvious to all, 
that in every gift there, is implied the giver, the thing 
given, and the recipient ; and it would be no more absurd 
to say that the gift and the recipient are one, than it is 
to say that the giver and the gift are numerically one. 
It is not because we discover the least difficulty in these 
appellations given to the Messiah that we express a doubt 
concerning them, but because they are all wanting in the 
Vatican, which is considered the most authentic copy of 
the Septuagint ; and in the last printed edition they are 
left out of the text, and placed only in the margin. Nevr 
ertheless, as these appellations are all found in the 
Hebrew text, we are not disposed to reject them. But 
they are, after all, by no means indicative of the nature 
of the being to whom they are applied, but only to his 

is* 



210 



NOTES. 



character. 66 His name shall be called , ' 5 &c. , — not that 
"his nature shall fo," &c. Calling a person by any 
name whatever adds nothing to his nature. But it may 
be said the nature of the Messiah was such as to render 
all these appellations proper, or else they would not have 
been given to him. To this we do not object. Let us 
now examine the names, and see what they imply. Let 
us see whether they necessarily imply a different nature 
from that of Moses and the prophets. 

te Wonderful/'' What is there in this that will not 
apply to Moses, as well as Jesus ? It will not be pre- 
tended but that the works of Moses were equally wonder- 
ful with those of Jesus ; for, if they were not so, how will 
it be maintained that they were of God ? 

" Counsellor." If Christ be our counsellor, was not 
Moses also a counsellor to Israel? This will not be 
denied. 

"The Mighty God." The word here rendered God is 
not Aleim, which is rendered God Gen. 1:1, and which 
is applied to Moses Ex. 7 : 1 ; but it is Al, a word 
of very extensive meaning. Mr. Parkhurst, in his Hebrew 
Lexicon, says, " This is one of the most difficult roots in 
the Hebrew language, and various methods have been 
taken by learned men to account for its several applica 
tions. After the most attentive consideration,! think the 
notion of interposition, intervention , or the like, bids the 
fairest for the ideal meaning of it, and best reconciles its 
different uses." Suppose, then, we call this Son given 
" The mighty Inter poser," how much would this differ 
from the * 4 Mediator between God and men, the man 
Christ Jesus " ? 1 Tim. 2:5. In an ancient folio Bible, 
in five volumes, entitled, "Bibla Sacra Hebraice, Chal- 
daice, Greece, et Latine" the Hebrew of this phrase is 



NOTES. 



211 



rendered in Latin Deus fortis, and the Greek is rendered 
in Latin Deus fortis, potens. The first of these phrases 
we should render Me valiant God; the second, a God pre- 
eminently valiant, or, the valiant God, having pre- 
eminence. If we examine, also, both the Hebrew and the 
Greek, we find that this is the most that can be made out 
of either ; and any one must perceive that the phrase is 
more applicable to one whom God has raised up and 
exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, than it is to God 
himself ; yea, such a phrase, while it highly exalts the 
dignity of man, would, if applied to the Supreme God of 
the universe, certainly lessen the dignity of his character. 

" The Everlasting Father." The Hebrew word here 
rendered everlasting in its general import " denotes 
beyond, further, or besides somewhat else. As a particle 
of time, yet, still, moreover, a long while, until, whilst, 
during the time that, all along, perpetually." It is 
used Isa. 47 : 7, where it is rendered forever. The 
words under consideration are rendered by the LXX, 
pater tou mellontos aionos, and in the Latin of the Bibla 
Sacra, referred to above, pater futuri seculi, the father 
of the future age ; and, admitting the passage to be gen- 
uine, this is what we take to be its true import. 

" Tlie Prince of Peace." These words certainly can- 
not imply anything more than may be justly applied to 
man. 

Yates, in his vindication of Unitarianism against the 
attack of Wardlaw, takes particular notice of the two 
passages Isaiah 7 : 14 and 9 : 6. His remarks are 
worthy of repeated perusal. 

If the title God belonged to all " unto whom the word 
of God came," John 10: 34, 25, these two passages 
would present no obstacle to our belief in the Unitarian 



212 



NOTES. 



doctrine, even though it -were certain that in each 
instance the original text is iincorrupted, the English 
translation correct, and the designations ' ' Imma^uel ' ' 
and " Mighty God" really intended to be descriptive of 
the nature of Christ, These titles would only convey 
the same ideas which were expressed by the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, when they exclaimed, " A great prophet 
is risen up among us," and by the two disciples (Luke 
22 : 19) who described Jesus of Xazareth as "a prophet 
mighty in deed and word.'" 

In order to perceive the true meaning of bnnixuEL, it 
is necessary to consider the singular manner in which 
proper names were formed and applied to the ancient 
Hebrews. It was common among them to give to their 
children names which were in reality short sentences, 
expressive of some divine favor conferred at the time of 
the child's birth. Thus Ha gar called her new-born son 
Ishmael, which is, being interpreted, God hath heard ! 
an exclamation expressive of her joy that God had heard 
her affliction (Gen. 16 : 11). Agreeably to the same 
idiom most other Scripture names are to be understood. 

In the third verse of the chapter in which Imxaxuel 
occurs, mention is made of one of the sons of Isaiah under 
the name of Shear- jashub. This name is a complete 
sentence. Literally translated, it is, a remxaxt shall 
reterx. The son of Jsaiah was called by this singular 
appellation in order that the great and consolatory fact of 
the return of a remnant of the Jewish nation from cap- 
tivity, which was the frequent burthen of his prophecy, 
might, by the appearance of his son, bearing this express- 
ive name, be often recalled to his mind, and to the minds 
of his countrymen. Also, in the next chapter, which is a 
continuation of the same prophecy, and relates to the 



NOTES, 



213 



same events, we are informed that Isaiah had another 
son, concerning whom the Lord said to him (ver. 3), 
Call his name Matter shalal hash baz. This signifies, 
The spoiling hastexeth, the preyixg Cometh quicexy. 
The Divine command was intended and understood as 
an intimation that soon after this child's birth the Jews 
would be victorious over their enemies, and the time of 
spoiling their vanquished foes would arrive. Accordingly, 
the reason for giving this name is assigned in the next 
verse in the following terms : " For before the child shall 
have knowledge to cry My father, and my mother, the 
riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be 
taken away before the King of Assyria." 

In consequence of this singular custom of giving names 
to children descriptive of the circumstances of their birth, 
it became usual with the prophets to denote an event, 
which was about to accompany the birth of a child, by 
saying that the child would have a name descriptive of 
that event. Among the Jews this remarkable mode of 
speaking was well understood, although it is little adapted 
to the habits of our age and nation. These facts must be 
borne in mind as leading to the exact interpretation of the 
title Immaxuel, which signifies God is with us. It was 
intended to signify that, at the time of the child's birth, 
God would be with his people by extraordinary mani- 
festations of his favor. Hence the prophet, in the next 
chapter, foretelling the defeat of the enemies of Judah, 
assigns its cause by repeating the affirmation, God is 
with rs, or Immaxuel, which a little before he employs 
as the name of the child (ver. 9, 10). " Associate your- 
selves, 0 ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and 
give ear, all ye of far countries : gird yourselves, and ye 
shall be broken in pieces ; gird yourselves, and ye shall 



214 



NOTES. 



be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall 
come to naught ; speak the word, and it shall not stand : 
for Immanuel ! God is with us ! " 

It is generally agreed that, in its primary application, 
this passage related to the birth of a child within a few 
years from the publication of the prophecy. Bishop 
Lowth remarks that, though " not excluding a higher 
secondary sense, the obvious and literal meaning of the 
prophecy is this : that within the time that a young 
woman, now a virgin, should conceive and bring forth a 
child, and that child should arrive at such an age as to 
distinguish between good and evil, — that is, within a few 
years (compare ch. 8 : 4), — the enemies of Judah should 
■be destroyed. " As a sign of the destruction of Judah, 
the child to be born at that time was to be called Imman- 
tjel ! God is with us ! and all that was meant by the 
exclamation God is with us ! was, that God would at 
that time appear in a remarkable manner as the protect- 
or and benefactor of his people. When applied according 
to the (i higher secondary sense " of the prophecy, it had 
the same meaning. It signified that when the Messiah 
drose God would bestow great blessings upon mankind. 
In this sense all serious Unitarians entertain the most 
grateful conviction that God was, and, so long as the 
gospel of his Son shall continue to illuminate, console and 
reclaim mankind, that He is with us. 

Thus, I have no doubt, the passage of Isaiah was 
understood by the writer, who has applied it to the birth 
of Jesus Christ. At the same time, I am aware that this 
interpretation is by no means obvious to those who have 
not paid much attention to the idioms of the Scriptures, 
and that it may easily be held up to ridicule by the 
inconsiderate. 



NOTES. 



215 



Bishop Lowth observes , concerning this portion of the 
prophecies of Isaiah (ch. 7—9 : 6), that there are in 
it <s many great difficulties." The verse which is quoted 
to prove the Divinity of Christ, on account of the phrases 
" mighty God,' ' although produced by the ignorant 
with the most triumphant and unreflecting confidence, 
will probably be allowed by all competent judges to be 
attended with as great difficulties as any other verse in 
this confessedly obscure portion of sacred Scripture. I 
am sensible that it would be highly presumptuous in me 
to attempt to decide the various questions relating to it, 
about which the most eminent critics, both in foreign 
countries and in our own, have differed, and continue to 
differ ; such as, whether the word Al, translated God, 
to which there is nothing corresponding in any of the 
ancient Greek versions, be a genuine part of the Hebrew 
text ; whether, supposing it to be genuine, it ought not 
to be translated a 6 i Ruler," since this is a very common 
acceptation of the term ; and whether the titles con- 
tained in this verse were not intended to describe, at 
least according to their primary signification, the charac- 
ter of Hezekiah, or some other distinguished person, born 
at the time when the prophecy was uttered. Without 
endeavoring to settle questions upon which those men 
who are the best qualified to decide speak with the great- 
est diffidence, I shall only say that our firm belief in the 
sole Supreme Divinity of the Father, and the subordina- 
tion of Jesus Christ, ought not to be shaken by the evi- 
dence of a passage which is allowed to be attended with 
many difficulties, and in which, at the very utmost, the 
application of the title "mighty God " to Jesus of Naz- 
areth would only prove him to be a person unto whom 
the word of God came. — Boston Edition, 185 — 189. 



216 



NOTES. 



To the same purport are the remarks of Rev. John 
Sherman, in his work entitled, " One God in One Person 
only," one of the earliest treatises in favor of the strict 
unity of God ever published in America. He says, 

" That this passage really respects the Lord Jesus we 
shall not here undertake to dispute, though there is no 
certainty in our minds that it has any such reference. 
Be this as it may, the passage is very far from asserting 
the supreme and independent divinity of Christ. For, 

" 1. You will please to notice that he is declared to be 
a child bom, a son given. This is the description of his 
nature. This is what lie actually is. 

64 2. The passage does not say that the government is 
now upon his shoulder, but that it shall be ; which im- 
plies that he is about to be raised to an authority he does 
not now possess. 

ee 3. You will observe the passage does not say that 
he is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, &c, but 
that he shall be thus styled; he shall have these titles 
when the government shall be upon his shoulder. 

" 4. If you ask how he who is a child born and a son 
given shall rise to the eminence of having the government 
upon his shoulder, and the high titles mentioned, the 
passage explains this matter, and says. The zeal of the 
Lord of Hosts will perform this, — that is, will see that 
these things be conferred upon him. 

"In fulfilment of this prediction, if it really respects 
Christ, the Scriptures inform us that the zeal of the Lord 
of Hosts has actually performed all that is here declared, 
— ( The God of our Lord Jesus Christ has put all things 
under his feet, and given him to be head over all things 
to the church.* God hath made that same Jesus whom 



* Eph. 1 : 22. 



NOTES. 



217 



ye have crucified Lord.* Him hath God exalted with 
his own right hand to be a Prince,^ and given him a 
name above every name.'t Pray, is the supreme and 
independent deity of Christ to be inferred from the state- 
ment made in fulfilment of this prediction ? If not, as 
no one will pretend, then why make this inference from 
the prediction itself? 

" It is strange that this passage should be adduced, on 
every occasion, in proof of the deity of Christ, seeing it 
only predicts that the child, the son, should be elevated, 
by the power of the Lord of Hosts, to the government of 
his people, and have bestowed upon him high and exalted 
titles. "§ 



Note B. See page 147. 

"The belly of the fish." — If Jonah was in reality swal- 
lowed by a fish, whether by a whale or any other sea 
monster, he might truly consider himself in the bowels of 

* Acts 2:36. f Acts 5 : 31. % Phil. 2 : 9. 

§ It may not be improper to remark here that the passage 
is eapable of a different translation. And his name shall be 
called, a Mighty God, the Father of the everlasting age ; that 
is, of the Christian dispensation, which is to continue to the 
end of the world. The noted Lowth translates it as above, 
excepting that he uses the article the, ir stead of a, before 
mighty God. Further, it ought not to be omitted, that the 
seventy interpreters, according to the Vatican, have given a 
very different account of this passage. They make no men- 
tion of these titles, but render it thus : And his name shall be 
called (megales boules angelos) the messenger of the grand 
design. This translation is confirmed by the versions of 
Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. 

19 



218 



NOTES. 



hell ; not, however, according to the most obvious and 
literal meaning of the Hebrew word sheol, but according 
to a most easy and natural figure. He was cast out into 
the deep, he was concealed in the bowels of the fish, the 
floods compassed about him, and all the billows and the 
Waves passed over him. This would fully justify the use 
and application of the word sheol, hell, and differing but 
very little from a literal sense. The learned have differed 
very much in opinion as to what kind of fish this must 
have been. That it could not have been the common 
whale is evident, as the gullet of the largest of that 
species does not exceed four inches, — yea, it is stated in 
the Encyclopaedia that " their throat is so narrow that 
an animal larger than a herring could not enter." This, 
and other considerations which might be mentioned, 
have led some to doubt whether it could have been any 
live animal ; but suppose that the same Hebrew word, 
dag, might have also been applied to something else. 
" Dagh, in Persia, signifies a mountain " (or rock). Pink- 
erton, part xxix., p. 493. Some have thought that the 
word might have been applied to the hull or wreck of some 
vessel which might have been providentially there to 
receive Jonah, and on which he might have been driven 
to the shore. Others have supposed (and what, perhaps, 
is equally probable) that Jonah might have been cast 
upon a floating mass of sea-weed, to which the Hebrew 
word, without much difficulty, would apply, and which 
are often very large and extensive. ' 8 Sea-plants, finding 
in the water a sufficient quantity of saline particles, oils, 
and all such spirits as are requisite for their vegetation, 
stand in no need of roots in the earth to feed them with 
proper juices." Nat. Delin., vol. in., p. 168. See 
" Facts Authentic in Science and Religion," p. 497. 



NOTES, 



219 



The Hebrew word dag, when used as a verb, signifies 
to multiply or increase exceedingly. Hence, as a noun, 
it is the general name for fish, from their great increase. 
As a noun, dagen, which, comes from the same root, sig- 
nifies ££ com of all sorts, so named from its great increase, 
Gen. 27: 28." See Parkhurst'S Heb. Lex., under the 
word dag. It would not have "been, therefore, a very 
far-fetched figure, to call one of those floating beds of sea- 
weed, which are driven together by the wind, a great 
fish. The text itself seems rather to justify such an idea. 
See Jonah 2 : 5. " The weeds were wrapped above my 
head." This idea will undoubtedly appear very novel to 
many, and we do not feel disposed to give any decided 
opinion on the subject ; we only offer these ideas as con- 
taining a more rational solution of a difficulty which is in 
itself calculated to stagger the faith of some honest minds, 
who may think that a miracle of such an extraordinary 
nature requires more proof than the testimony of any one 
man for its support, — and especially the man who was the 
subject of it, and for whose preservation it was wrought, 
— before it can be rationally believed. We have no dispo- 
sition to call in question the existence of miracles, but 
firmly believe in them ; but, at the same time, to under- 
take to maintain a miracle, where it cannot be maintained 
beyond all reasonable doubt, so far from strengthening 
the Christian religion, only serves to weaken it, or, in 
other words, to give the enemy the advantage. For this 
reason, therefore, we think that miracles ought never to 
be contended for whenever the material facts can be 
accounted for in any other way. But, whatever be 
supposed to have been the literal facts, one thing is cer- 
tain, namely, that the hell which Jonah experienced, and 
out of the belly or bowels of which he prayed unto the 



220 



NOTES. 



Lord, was certainly in time, and during the period of Ms 
natural life. 

The history of Jonah, though by some carped at and 
turned into ridicule, contains nothing inconsistent with 
the soundest philosophy and experience ; for, 

1. Though a whale, properly so called, has so small a 
gullet that it could not possibly shallow a man, yet we 
ought to consider that the word ketos does not necessarily 
mean a whale, as distinguished from other large fishes, 
but only a great sea-monster, of which there are some — 
the shark among the rest — very capable of swallowing 
a man whole, and which have often done so. A very 
remarkable fish was taken on our own coast, though 
probably it was not of the full size, and therefore could 
not contain the body of a man. But others of its species 
Tery well might. A print and curious description of it, 
by Mr. James Ferguson, may be seen, Philosophical 
Transactions, vol. vj±t., p. 170, from which even this small 
one appears to have been near five feet in length, and of 
great bulk, and to have been merely, as it were, one vast 
bag, or great hollow tube, capable of containing the body 
of any animal of size that was in some small degree in- 
ferior to its own. And. unquestionably, such a kind of 
fish, and of still larger dimensions, may, consistently even 
with the most correct ideas of any natural historian, be 
supposed to have occasionally appeared in the Mediter- 
ranean, as well as on our coast, where such an one was 
caught, having come up so far as into the British Chan- 
nel and King's Road. 

2. A man may continue in the water, in some instances, 
without being drowned. Derham tells us (Phisico-The- 
ology, 6, 4, cap. 7, note p. 158, 12mo.) that some have 
the foramen ovale of the heart remaining open all their 



NOTES. 



221 



lives, though in most it is closed very soon after birth ; 
and that such persons as have the foramen ovale so left 
open could neither be hanged nor drowned ; because, when 
the lungs cease to play, the blood will nevertheless con- 
tinue to circulate, just as it does in a foetus in the womb, 
Though Mr. Cheselden doubted of this fact, vet Mr. Cow- 
per, the anatomist, says he often found the foramen open 
in adults, and gives some curious instances. Mr. Der- 
ham mentions several persons who were many hours and 
days under water, and yet recovered ; and one who even 
retained the sense of hearing in that state. And Dr. 
Piatt (History of Staffordshire, p. 292) mentions a per- 
son who survived and lived after having been hanged at 
Oxford for the space of twenty-four hours before she was 
cut down. The fact is notorious, and her pardon, reciting 
this circumstance, is extant on record. See Ray on the 
Creation, p. 230, who observes that having the foramen 
ovale of the heart open enables some animals to be am- 
phibious. TVhere, then, is the absurdity of conceiving 
that Jonah might have been a person of this kind, having 
the foramen ovale of his heart continuing open from his 
birth to the end of his days, in which case he could not 
be drowned, either by being cast into the sea or by being 
swallowed up by the fish ? 

8. Neither could Jonah be injured by the digesting fluid 
in the fish's stomach ; for Mr. Jo. Hunter observes (Phi- 
losophical Transactions, vol. lxii., p. 449) "That no 
animal substance can be digested, by the digesting fluid 
usually existing in animal stomachs, while life remains in 
such animal substances. Animals," says he, "or parts 
of animals, possessed of the living principle, when taken 
into the stomach, are not in the least affected by the 
powers of that viscus so long as the animal principle 



222 



NOTES, 



remains. Hence it is that we find animals of various 
kinds living in the stomach, or even hatched or bred 
there. But the moment that any of these lose the living 
principle the}' become subject to the digestive powers of 
the stomach, If it were possible for a man's hand, for 
example, to be introduced into the stomach of a living 
animal, and kept there for some considerable time, it 
would be found that the dissolvent powers of the stomach 
could have no effect upon it ; but, if the same hand were 
separated from the body, and introduced into the same 
stomach, we should then find that the stomach would 
immediately act upon it. Indeed, if this were not the 
case, we should find that the stomach itself ought to have 
been made of indigestible materials ; for, if the living prin- 
ciple were not capable of preserving animal substances 
from undergoing that process, the stomach itself would be 
digested. But we find, on the contrary, that the stomach, 
which at one instant — that is, while possessed of the living 
principle — was capable of resisting the digestive powers 
which it contained, the next moment — namely, when de- 
prived of the living principle — is itself capable of being 
digested, either by the digestive powers of other stomachs, 
or by the remains of that power vrhich it had of digesting 
other things." Consistently with which observations of 
Mr. Hunter, we find that smaller fishes have been taken 
alive out of the stomachs of fishes of prey, and, not having 
been killed by any bite or otherwise, have survived their 
being devoured, and have swam away well recovered, and 
very little affected by the digesting fluid. Two instances 
of this kind are mentioned by Dr. Piatt (History of Staf- 
fordshire, p. 245), and others might be added. 

There appears, therefore, nothing unphilosophical or 
absurd in supposing that Jonah (having the heart open, 



NOTES. 



223 



or such a construction of his frame as those persons men- 
tioned by Derhani had) might be cast into the sea, and be 
swallowed up whole by a great fish, and yet be neither 
drowned, nor bitten, nor corrupted, nor digested, nor 
killed ; and it will easily follow, from the dictates of com- 
mon sense, that in that case the fish itself must either die 
or be prompted by its leelings to get rid of its load ; and 
this, perhaps, it might do more readily near the shore 
than in the midst of the waters ; and in that case such 
person would certainly recover again, by degrees, and 
escape. I acknowledge there must have been a miracu- 
lous divine interposition, in causing all the circumstances 
of the presence of the fish, of the formation of Jonah, and 
of the nearness of the shore at the time of his being thrown 
up, to concur rightly to effect his deliverance ; and how 
much further the miraculous interposition might extend, 
we cannot nor ought not to presume to ascertain ; but 
solely to show the fact to be philosophically possible, even 
according to the experience we are permitted to be 
acquainted with, is sufficient to remove and fully to 
answer the objections of scoffers. — Erskine's Sketches 
of Church History, voL n., pp. 299 — 302. 



Note C. See page 148. 

The lowest depths cf hell, — A critical explanation of 
the original Hebrew word here rendered hell will at once 
remove from the human mind all that misapprehension 
which has heretofore been attached to it. The term is 
often used figuratively,, as it is in the passages referred to 
in the discourse : and whenever it is so used it always 
represents a state of figurative darkness, — that is, trouble 



224 



NOTES. 



and affliction, let the cause he what it may. But, when- 
ever it is used in this sense, it is always applied to the 
miseries of the present state of existence. The original 
Hebrew word sheol, as used in the Old Testament, when 
applied to the dead, never represents it as being a place 
of torment, but as being an unknown place of silence, 
darkness and death. Bat, as the Greek word hades, cor- 
responding to the Hebrew sheol) is once used in the New 
Testament as a place of torment, — namely, in the parable 
of the rich man and Lazarus, — it will be necessary to say 
something further upon the subject. 

In the first place, we shall state what we conceive to be 
the literal application, or rather the literal facts stated in 
the parable ; and then we shall state what we conceive to 
be the real meaning, as intended by our Saviour. 

It will be necessary, in the first place, to give a more 
full explanation of the Greek word hades, here rendered 
hell, than we have yet given : because hades is here 
represented as being a place of torment, and it is the only 
passage in which it is so represented in the Bible, — that 
is, except when the word is used synonymous with death, 
and the pains are applied to the living ; as David saith, 
" The sorrows of death compassed me, and pains of hell 
gat hold on me.'"' Psalm 116: 3. Though it maybe 
said that this implies that there are pains endured in hell, 
and that David felt these pains by anticipation, yet the 
pains of which he spake were hi the present tense. Let 
this, however, be as it may, whosoever will examine this 
subject as he ought will be satisfied that the souls of all, 
both good and bad, were supposed to be in hades, and 
that this is the first and only intimation in the Bible 
of there being any separation there between the righteous 
and the wicked ; for the Old Testament is entirely silent 



NOTES. 



225 



on the subject. "We cannot express our ideas better on 
this subject than to give them in the words of Dr. Camp- 
bell, taken from his Preliminary Dissertations, vol. n., 
part ii., page 273, and on. 

<£ As to the word hades, which occurs in eleven places 
in the New Testament, and is rendered hell in all except 
one, where it is translated grave, it is quite common in 
classical authors, and frequently used by the LXX in the 
translations of the Old Testament. In my judgment it 
ought never in the Scripture to be rendered hell, — at least, 
in the sense wherein that word is now universally under- 
stood by Christians. In the Old Testament the corre- 
sponding word is sheol, which signifies the state of the 
dead in general, without regard to the goodness or bad- 
ness of the persons, their happiness or misery. In 
translating that word the LXX have almost invariably 
used hades. The state [of the dead] is always repre- 
sented under those figures which suggest something dread- 
ful, dark and silent, about which the most prying eye and 
listening ear can acquire no information. The term hades 
is well adapted to express this idea. To this the word hell, 
in its primitive signification, perfectly corresponded ; for 
at first it denoted only what was secret or concealed. 

" First, in regard to the situation of hades, it seems 
always to have been conceived, by both Jews and Pagans, 
as in the lower parts of the earth, near its centre, as 
we should term it, or its foundation (according to 
the notions of the Hebrews, who knew nothing of its 
spherical figure), and answering in depth to the visible 
heavens in height ; both which are, on this account, 
oftener than once contrasted in sacred writ." 

Dr. Campbell, after reasoning pretty largely on this 
subject, adds, " So much for the literal sense of the word 



226 



NOTES. 



hades, which, as has been observed, implies properly 
neither hell nor the grave, but the place or state of 
departed souls. I know it has been said, and speciously 
supported, that in the Mosaical economy there was no 
express revelation of the existence of souls after death. 
Admitting this to be in some sense true, the Israelites 
were not without such intimations of a future state as 
types and figures and emblematical predictions could 
give them ; yet certain it is that life and immortality 
were in an eminent manner brought to light by the gos- 
pel. But, from whatever source they derived their 
opinions, that they had opinions on this subject, though 
dark and confused, is manifest, as from many other cir- 
cumstances, so particularly from the practice of witch- 
craft and necromancy, which prevailed among them, and 
the power they ascribed to sorcerers, — justly or unjustly, 
it matters not, — of waking the ghosts of the deceased." 

These opinions, it is true, in the first place, might have 
been all borrowed from the pagan philosophy, and, 
through the lapse of time, they might approximate nigher 
and nigher to that hypothesis, until they adopted the idea 
of separate apartments for the righteous and the wicked 
in hades. Agreeably to these ideas, one part of the scene 
of the rich man and Lazarus was laid in hades, and no 
doubt perfectly congenial to the popular notions of the 
day. For <{ the opinions neither of the Hebrews nor 
heathens remained invariably the same. And from the 
time of the captivity, more especially from the time of the 
subjection of the Jews, first to the Macedonian empire, 
and afterwards to the Romans, as they had a closer 
intercourse with the pagans, they insensibly imbibed many 
of their sentiments, particularly on those subjects whereon 
their law was silent, and wherein by consequence they 



NOTES. 



227 



considered themselves at a greater freedom. On this sub- 
ject of a future state we find a considerable difference in 
the popular opinions of the Jews, in our Saviour's time, 
from those which prevailed in the days of the ancient 
prophets* As both Greeks and Romans had adopted the 
notion that the ghosts of the departed were susceptible 
both of enjoyment and suffering, they were led to sup- 
pose a sort of retribution in that state, for their merit or 
demerit in the present. The Jews did not, indeed, adopt 
the pagan fables on this subject, nor did they express 
themselves entirely in the same manner ; but the general 
train of thinking in both came pretty much to coincide. 
The Greek hades they found well adapted to express the 
Hebrew sheol. This they came to conceive as including 
different sorts of habitations, for ghosts of different char- 
acters. And though they did not receive the terms Elys- 
ium, or Elysian fields, as suitable appellations for the 
regions peopled by good spirits, they took, instead of 
them, as better adapted to their own theology, the gar- 
den of Eden, or Paradise, a name originally Persian, 
by which the word answering to garden, especially 
when applied to Eden, had commonly been rendered by 
the LXX. To denote the same state they sometimes used 
the phrase Abraham's bosom, a metaphor borrowed from 
the manner in which they reclined at meals. But, on 
the other hand, to express the unhappy situation of the 
wicked in that intermediate state, they do not seem to 
have declined the use of the word tartar us. ' ' See 2 Pet. 
2 : 4, where the word rendered hell is tartarus. 

These things being premised, it is very obvious that 
both Abraham and Lazarus, as well as the rich man, were 
all represented as being in hades, the general receptacle 
for departed spirits, or the dead. They are all repre- 



228 



NOTES. 



sented as being alive and active, susceptible of happiness 
or misery ; hence Abraham and Lazarus are represented 
as being happy, and the rich man as being in torment. 
They are far distant from each other, and a gulf between. 
All this accounts for their being in sight and in hearing, 
■which can hardly be reconciled upon any other hypoth- 
esis. In the original all the verbs which signify motion 
in the parable are such as always denote motion on the 
same ground or level, or nearly so. Thus Lazarus, when 
dead, is said to be carried away by angels, not carried 
up into Abraham's bosom ; and so with the verbs which 
signify passing from Abraham to the rich man, or from 
thence to him, the verbs employed are such as always 
denote motion on the same ground or level ; as passing a 
river or lake, passing through the Red Sea, or passing 
from Asia into Macedonia. But, when heaven is spoken 
of as the termination to which, or from which, the pas- 
sage is made, the word is invariably different. ' * Thus 
both the circumstances of the story and expressions 
employed in it confirm the explanation I have given. 
.For, if the sacred penmen wrote to be understood, they 
must have employed their words and phrases in conform- 
ity to the current usage of those for whom they wrote. 5 ' 

Thus, this account, if taken literally, and not consid- 
ered as a parable, would prove a state of condemnation 
or punishment after death, though it would not pro Ye a 
punishment after the resurrection. But then the truth 
of the whole account, as a literal fact, depends on the 
truth of an intermediate state of consciousness between 
death and the resurrection ; which state requires direct 
proof before it can be consistently believed. Considering 
the account as a parable as it is generally considered by 
most commentators, admitting the language to be con- 



NOTES. 



229 



fomiable to their views of things, it contains all the 
instruction that it could contain, whether the literal facts 
be true or not. On this point Dr. Campbell, who was 
an advocate for the doctrine of an intermediate state, says, 
" I am not ignorant that the doctrine of an intermediate 
state between death and the resurrection has been of 
late strenuously combated by some learned and ingenious 
men ; amongst whom we must reckon that excellent divine 
and firm friend to freedom of inquiry, Dr. Law, Bishop 
of Carlisle. I honor his disposition, and have the 
greatest respect for his talents ; but, at the same time 
that I acknowledge he has with much ability supported 
the side he has espoused, I have never felt mvself on this 
head convinced, though sometimes perplexed, by his 
reasoning." 

Having shown what we conceive to be the literal facts 
represented in this parable (for a parable we shall con- 
sider it, until the literal facts can be proved from other 
scriptures to be at least probably correct), we shall now 
briefly state what we conceive to be its figurative ap- 
plication. 

1. By the rich man the high priest might be par- 
ticularly intended, as a representation of the Jews in 
general. 

2. By the beggar the Gentile is represented as ex- 
cluded from the privileges which God's covenant people 
enjoyed. 

3. By the death of Lazarus and the rich man, and the 
circumstances which follow, we are to understand the 
close of the legal dispensation and the opening of the 
gospel day ; when the Gentile, through faith in the 
Messiah, died to all his idolatrous religion, and, being 
absolved from the same, was carried by angels, messen- 

20 



230 



NOTES. 



gers of the covenant, into the faith of the gospel, as 

preached to Abraham, figuratively represented by Abra- 
ham's bosom ; and, by a firm reliance on the promise 
made to Abraham, is comforted. The rich man died a 
political death ; and the judgments of God denounced in 
the law and the prophets against the Jews roll on upon 
him. In this situation he sees fulfilled the words of 
Christ, Luke 13 : 28, 29, which see. He sees the Gen- 
tiles flocking to the light, while he remains in the dark- 
ness of unbelief, in which he is tormented. The great 
change of circumstances preys upon his mind like a 
burning fire. 

4. In this situation the dialogue is supposed to take 
place between this representation of the house of Israel 
and Abraham. Finding no relief for himself, he solicits 
for his five brethren in his father's house ; by which we 
may understand that part of the house of Israel which 
were represented by five virgins, in the twenty-fifth of 
Matthew. They are those who made void the law by 
adhering to the traditions of those who taught for doc- 
trine the commandments of men. 

The gulf is the barrier between the two dispensations, 
which cannot be removed until the present dispensation, 
is closed ; when out of Sion shall come the deliverer, and 
turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and so all Israel shall 
be saved. 



Note D. See page 148. 

And it is set on fire of hell. — It will be necessary for 
the reader to understand here that the word rendered hell 
in the New Testament, wherever it is connected with fire, 
or with damnation, is in the original gehenna, which, both 
in its literal and figurative signification, differs materially 



NOTES. 



231 



from that of hades. It is frequently used by St. Matthew, 
as also by St. Mark. It is used once by St. Luke. But it is 
not used by St. John ; not in the Acts of the Apostles ; not 
in any of the Epistles, or in any other part of the New 
Testament, save this once by St. James, who used it 
figuratively, and his meaning cannot be misunderstood. 

This word, as every person of common biblical science 
knows, signified the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, 
It is a compound of two Hebrew words, ge, the land or 
the valley, and Hinnom , the name of the owner. It was 
there the cruel sacrifices of animals, and sometimes chil- 
dren, were made to Moloch, the Ammonitish idol. This 
place is sometimes called Tophet, as some think from Toph, 
a word which signifies a drum, because drums were beat 
to drown the cries of the suffering children; or, according 
to others, from a particular fire-stove in the place. In 
the reign of the good king Josiah, the idolatrous worship 
into which the Jews had been led was broken up, and 
Gehenna was defiled and made the receptacle of the filth 
of Jerusalem. A continual fire was kept burning, to 
destroy carcasses thrown in ; and, in a word, Gehenna 
became as abominable under the reign of Josiah, as it had 
been sacred during the idolatrous worship of the Jews. 
In process of time, as all writers agree, Gehenna came to 
be a place of punishment where criminals were caused to 
suffer death by burning ; and in this sense the Saviour 
uses the word, when he says, " But whosoever shall say 
thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire," that is, the fire 
of Gehenna.* With such abhorrence and dread, under 

* On this passage, the learned Parkhurst, a strict believer 
in endless misery, observes, " Gehenna of fire does, I appre- 
hend, in its outward and primary sense, relate to that dreadful 
doom of being burnt alive in the valley of Hinnom,*' 



232 



NOTES. 



all thesfe circumstances, did tlie Jews regard this place, 
that they used it as a figure of dreadful woes and judg- 
ments ; and so we find it used both in the Old and New 
Testament. Thus, in Jer. 19, the destruction of Israel is 
foretold ; and, in summing up what he had said, the 
prophet acids, ver. 12, " Thus will I do unto this place, 
saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even 
make this city as Tophet." Here Gehenna is certainly 
used as a figure to represent Jerusalem under its tribula- 
tions. We recommend the reader to peruse the whole of 
Jer. 19. See, also, 7 : 31 — 3-4. Jesus used the word in 
the same sense. Of this we think there cannot be the 
shadow of a doubt. He said to the Pharisees, " Ye ser- 
pents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the 
damnation of Gehenna ?" Matt. 23 : 33. He imme- 
diately adds, " Verily I say unto you, all these things 
shall come upon this generation." Ver. 36. Whatever 
Jesus here meant by the "damnation of Gehenna" he 
certainly confined to that generation ; and can there be a 
question, in the mind of any judicious person, that he 
referred to the judgment impending ever Jerusalem ? He 
refers to these judgments again in Matt. 24 : 21. " For 
then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the 
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall 
be." But here he is particular to say, £t This generation 
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Ver. 34. 
From these quotations from the Scriptures, the subject 
must, we think, be regarded as settled, that Gehenna was 
used by the prophets and by Jesus Christ as an emblem 
of the calamities which befell the Jews in the destruction 
of the city and overthrow of the nation.* Under this 

* On the word Gehenna are staked the last hopes of those 
who defend the doctrine of punishment in the future state. 



NOTIS. 



233 



view of the subject, the "hell fire' 5 spoken of in the 
parable forms a perfect contrast to the "kingdom of 
God;" — the oneway the happy portion of the believer in 

Their zeal in contending that this word was used by Christ to 
favor that doctrine is certainly proportioned to the desperate- 
ness of their cause. But can there possibly be any dispute that 
Jesus meant by the "damnation of Gehenna," in Matt. 23 : 
33, the judgment with which God was then about to visit the 
J ewsl " Verily I say unto you," said he, " all these things (this 
" damnation of Gehenna" being the most important he had 
mentioned) shall come upon this generation." Yer. 36. And 
to what did Jesus refer, Matt. 5: 22, by the "fire of Gehen- 
na," except to the fire of the valley of Hinnom, in the literal 
sense 1 The learned Par knurs t, an eminent Orthodox critic, 
as we have already quoted, takes this view of the sub- 
ject. Lex. sub voc. Gehen. Adam Clarke, another believer in 
endless misery, took the same view. Com. on New Test, in 
loco. We cannot perceive why the "judgment" and the 
"council," mentioned in the passage, may not be applied to 
the future state with as much propriety as the " Gehenna 
of fire." 

Now, in reference to the ten other passages in which Ge- 
henna occurs, they should be explained by the help of these. 
In the Old Testament the valley of Hinnom is made a figure 
of the temporal punishment of the Jews. This is unques- 
tionable. "When Jesus spoke of Gehenna to his disciples, 
would they not understand him as using it in the same sense] 
"When he threatened the unbelieving Jews with the " damna- 
tion of Gehenna," would not they understand him to use the 
word in the sense in which their own prophets had used it 1 
Jesus never intimated, nor is there a single intimation thrown 
out by any Xew Testament writer, that this word is to have 
a widely different signification in the Xew Testament from 
what it bore in the Old. To us it seems highly probable that 
when Jesus threatened the Jews with the "damnation of 

20* 



234 



NOTES. 



Jesus ; the other was the sad lot of those who were 
regardless of his teachings and admonitions. 

Gehenna," he had in his mind the declaration of Jeremiah 
that God would make Jerusalem like Tophet. 

To this it may be replied, that, notwithstanding Gehenna 
never bears the sense of future punishment in the Old Testa- 
ment, yet in the time of Christ it did have that signification, 
as used in common language among the Jews, and by their 
theological writers ; and therefore, it is asked, would not the 
J ews have so understood Christ in his use of the word 1 Wo 
answer no, even if this had been the case ; for did he not say, 
concerning the "damnation of Gehenna," " all these things 
shall come on this generation" 1 Whatever, therefore, their 
views of Gehenna were, they could not have misunderstood 
him in his view of it. But it is far from being a settled 
question, that the Jews in the time of Christ did under- 
stand by Gehenna a place of punishment in the invisible 
world. That the Pharisees believed in punishments after 
death we do not deny ; but Jesus explicitly admonished his 
disciples " to take heed and beware of the leaven (that is, doc 
trine) of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Compare Matt. 16 : 6 
with 12. If Jesus regarded the doctrine of future punishment, 
in which the Pharisees believed, as of any importance, why 
did he not make an exception of that sentiment, when he gave 
the above admonition 1 But that the Jews in the time of Christ 
used the word Gehenna to apply to future punishment, has 
never been proved. That word, as Mr. Balfour has shown 
(Inquiry, 2d edition, pp. 239, 240), does not occur in the 
Apocrypha. The Targums have not been sufficiently exam- 
ined by any author who doubted the common opinion. " Be- 
fore we ought to be satisfied with regard to their bearing on 
this subject," says a careful writer, "it appears to me that 
the following points should be clearly ascertained : 1. 
Whether the oldest of them, those of Jonathan, Ben Uzziel 



NOTES. 



235 



Note E. See page 202. 

In addition to the doctrines of men, mentioned in 
the sermon, which it is impossible either to know or 
understand, we would mention in this place that of a 
trinity in unity with respect to the Deity ; or, in other 
words, the doctrine of the trinity. It is impossible that 
such a doctrine should be known to be true, since there is 
nothing in divine revelation to support it ; and it is not 
even pretended by any one that such a doctrine can be 
understood. Why, then, must it be believed ? The doc- 
trine cannot be expressed in Scripture language. The 
words Trinity, Triune God, Three Persons in One God, God 
the Son, God the Holy Ghost, Holy and Blessed Trinity, 
Glorious Trinity, Blessed and Adorable Triuity, and the 
like, are not in that connection ; neither is the word 
Trinity in the Bible ; neither is the doctrine made up or 
supported by Bible language. Yea , we hazard nothing in 
asserting that it is impossible for any man to express 
either of the above ideas in the language of Scripture. 
And yet this is considered the most essential article of the 
Orthodox creed ! 

and Onkelos, do in fact use the word Gehenna to denote a 
place of future torment ; for all the others are of too late a 
date to be used as evidence. 2. TThether it is probable that 
even those Targums are as Old as our Saviour's time ; for I 
understand that this is a disputed question among critics, and 
that the celebrated Bauer and Jahn bring them down to the 
second or third century." 

On the whole, there is no evidence yet ascertained that the 
Jews ever used Gehenna in reference to future punishment, as 
early as the time of Christ. 



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HISTORICAL. 



THE 

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BEING A REPORT OF 

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THEOLOGICAL. 



THE PLAIN GUIDE 

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tions, and thus to lead candid inquirers to the belief of the 
doctrine maintained by Universalists. 



NOTES AW ILLUSTRATIONS 

OF THE 

PARABLES 

OF THE 

NEW TESTAMENT 

ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE TIME 
IN WHICH THEY WERE SPOKEN. 

BY THOMAS WHITTEMORE- 

1 vol. 12mo., pp. 381. Price 75 cents. 



The Parables are arranged in reference to the order of 
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the doctrine of endless misery, particular care was taken to 
show wherein orthodox expositors have agreed with Univer- 
salists in their interpretations of them. A full index is added 
to the work. 



LIFE OF REV. HOSEA BALLOU ; 

WITH ACCOUNTS OF HIS WRITINGS, AND BIOGRAPH- 
ICAL SKETCHES OF HIS SENIORS AND CON- 
TEMPORARIES IN THE UNIVERSAL- 
IST MINISTRY. 

BY THOMAS WHITTEJMEORE. 

4 vols; 12mo., plain, cloth, $4; full gilt, muslin, $6. 



These Four Volumes form a complete Magazine of. spir- 
itual wealth. The Universalist who possesses and reads them, 
will be furnished with every fact and argument he needs to 
support his great and holy faith. 

This is the Life of a great and good man, who was beloved 
by all who knew him. The life of such a man is a model for 
the imitation of the world. 

It is the Life of a deep thinker, a sincere Christian the- 
ologian, a profound student of the Word of God, — a man 
who did much to bring out the true sense thereof. ■ The Life 
of such a man. with faithful accounts of his writings, (such as 
we have in Mr. Whittemore's work is exceedingly instructive. 

The work opens the early life of Mr. Ballou, with the lives 
of his ancestors ; it shows him as a young man ; a convert 
among the Baptists : a member of the Baptist Church ; it 
shows how his mind struggled with the doctrine of endless 
misery, until he saw by the light of Revelation that it was 
not true ; how happily he became in the belief of Universal- 
ism ; how he commenced to preach in his 19th year; how 
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pastor first in Dana, (then a part of Hardwick, Mass..) then 
in the region of Barnard, Yt. ; then at Portsmouth. X. H. ; 
then at Salem, Mass., and then in Boston, where he lived as a 
clergyman for thirty-rive years, and died at last honoied and 
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It gives Sketches of the Lives of Mr. Ballou's seniors and 
early contemporaries in the Universalist ministry. 

It states his doctrines very clearly and the arguments by 
which he defended them, 



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The predominant moral qualities of Mr. Balfour were hon- 
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they are dead. The influence of his life will be long felt. 

To assist in giving the proper influence to his life and char- 
acter, the foregoing work has been prepared. 



THE DOCTRINE OF 
ETERNAL HELL TORMENTS OVERTHROWN, 

In three parts, viz : Part 1st, of the torments of Hell, the 
foundation and pillars thereof, searched, discovered, shaken, 
and removed, &c. Part 2d, an article from the harleian 
miscellany on Universalism. Part 3d, Dr. Hartley's de- 
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1 vol. 12mo., pp. 167. Price 50 cents. 

It cannot be considered improper to introduce the following 
work, on the Torments of Hell, with a brief account of its 
Author. The first edition appeared in London, in 1658, and 
no secrecy was maintained in regard to its origin. It was 
avowedly the production of one Samuel Richardson, a writer 
of some note, if we may judge from the size and number of 
the works he wrote. Very little, however, is known of him. 
The following work, we believe, is the Fourth Edition. The 
original edition came out, as we have said, in 1658 ; the sec- 
ond, in 1660. The third was published many years after with 
a selection of scarce and valuable pieces that were entirely 
out of print, with a view to their preservation. This edition 
is from the third. It should be remembered that it is about 
two hundred years since this work was written. 



A 

COMMENTARY 

ON 

THE REVELATION 

OF 

ST. JOHN THE DIVINE. 



BY THOMAS WHITTEMOHE. 

1 vol. 12mo.j pp. 388. Price $1.00. j 



This is the most popular, and at the same time profound 
and correct explanation of the Apocalypse which has yet ap- 
peared in this country. It has received the commendation of 
all flasses of the community — it was reviewed at length, and 
with much favor in the Universalist Quarterly (by Dr. Bal- 
lou) and in the Christian Examiner (Unitarian). In this 
work the Bible is made to explain the Bible — the Old Tes- 
tament to illustrate the New, the familiar passage to illustrate 
the dark and difficult. 



WITNESSES TO THE TRUTH: 



CONTAINING 

PASSAGES FROM DISTINGUISHED AUTHORS, 

DEVELOPING THE GREAT TRUTH OF UNIVERSAL SALVATION : 
WITH AN APPENDIX, EXHIBITING THE ENORMITY OF 
THE DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS MISERY. 
BY J. W. HANSON. 

1 vol. 16mo. pp. 185, Price 50 cents. 



The reader is presented with segregations from many au- 
thors — some of them of the very highest order of genius — 
which develop the grand idea of a final and universal de- 
struction of evil, and the triumph of goodness and happiness. 

It is believed that those whose thoughts have not been par- 
ticularly turned in this direction, will be surprised at the 
number and wealth of the quotations herein contained. It is 
dedicated to the Household of Faith. 



MEMOIR OP REV. JAMES M. COOK, 

BY THEODORE D. COOK. 

lvol. 12mo., pp.430. Price, plain cloth, $1.00; full gilt, 
muslin, $1.50. 

This work has received the highest praise of the Press. 
It is the biography of a young, talented, and earnest minister 
of the Gospel. 

His life as presented in this book, furnishes a worthy ex- 
ample for the young men of our land to imitate. It should be 
read by all. 



UNIVERSALIST BELIEF; 



OR, 



THE DOCTRINAL VIEWS OF UXIYEESALISTS. 



BY ASHEH HO CHE. 

1 vol. 1 61110., pp.216; price 50 cents. 



The first edition of this unpretending little volume met a 
more ready sale, obtained a wider circulation, and was re- 
ceived with more general favor than either the author or the 
publisher expected. 

To this (the second edition) has been added a chapter enti- 
tled " The Great Consummation," in which, we trust, will be 
found some facts and arguments which to the general reader 
may prove interesting and instructive, and seemed necessary 
to complete the plans and objects of the work. 



REASONS FOR OUR HOPE : 

Comprising upwards of a thousand scriptural evidences, 
direct, illustrative, and collateral, of the doctrine of The Fi- 
nal Salvation of all the Human Family : demonstrating The 
Bible to be a Universalis Book : The selections being 
classified under a series of fifty distinct proportions, vari- 
sly expressive of "The Common Salvation." 

BY J. VICTOR WILSON. 



1 vol. ISmo.. pp. 313. Price 75 cents. 



THE UXIVERSALIST'S BOOK OF REFERENCE. 



Containing all the principal facts and arguments, and 
Scripture texts, pro and con on the great con- 
troversy beticeen Limitarians and 
Universalists. 

BY E. £. GUILD. 

1 vol. 12mo., pp. 381. Price $1.00. 



This work is designed to be what its title imports ; a book 
of Reference. That the subjects discussed in this volume 
are important, no one will dispute. TVe have expressed our 
opinions freely/ frankly and boldly. 

These opinions are the result of years of careful, patient, 
persevering and untiring investigation, 

We have long seen and felt the necessity of a work like 
this, and for years have been collecting together material for 
it, and now present it to the public. 



THIKTY SHORT SERMONS 

ON VAEIOUS IMPORTANT SUBJECTS, BOTH DOCTRINAL AND 
PRACTICAL. 

BY J. B. DODS. 

1 vol. 16mo., pp. 384. Price 75 cents. 

The above is the title of a book from the pen of a clear 
and strong reasoner, and the arguments are conclusive in favor 
of a world's redemption. 



THE DIVINE EFFICIENCY AND MORAL 
HARMONY OF THE UNIVERSE; 

PROVED FROM REASON AND SCRIPTURE, 

BY A PASTOE. 
1 vol. lGmo., pp. 156. Price 50 cents. 

This work shows that in the Efficiency of Gods works 
there is a moral harmony and beauty that commends the 
ways of God to the careful study of Man. 



THE UNIVERSALIST PULPIT; 



CONTAINING SERMONS BY HOSEA BALLOU, E. H. CHAPLN, THOMAS 
WHITTEMORE, O. H. TILLOTSON, T. B. THAYER, JOHN MUR- 
RAY, LEMUEL WILLIS, AND A. A. MINER, WITH 
A FINE LIKENESS AND BIOGRA- 
PHY OF EACH. 

1 vol. octavo, pp. 336. Price $1.25. 



This is a work of great value and no Universalist should 
be without it. The likenesses are excellent, the sermons able, 
and the subject discussed important. 



UNITED STATES CONVENTION SERMONS, 

CONTAINING 

THE TWELVE SERMONS PREACHED, 
IN NEW YORK IN 1852. 

AND A 

LIKENESS OP EACH OP THE AUTHORS, 

VIZ., T. B. ABEL, 0. A. SKINNER, A. A. MINER, W. H. RYDER, 
HOSEA BALLOU 2d., E. FISHER, I. D. "WILLIAMSON, 
A. G-. LAURIE, S. P. SKINNER, G. W. MONT- 
GOMERY, THOMAS WHITTEMORE, AND 
MOSES BALLOU. 

1 vol. 12mo., cloth, plain, $1, cloth gilt extra, $2. 



The discourses composing this volume, we regard as pro- 
ductions fully entitled to the name of Sermons. They are 
not mere essays. The difference between an Essay and a 
Sermon is very marked, though it may not be easy to define 
exactly in what it consists. TVe feel therefore, that we are 
doing a good service to the denomination, in publishing this 
volume, for in this form, the Sermons can be read by thou- 
sands w T ho w^ere not able to hear them. In presenting a like- 
ness of each preacher, we think that we have given a great 
attraction to the volume. The engravings are w T ell executed, 
and the likenesses are pronounced good by the best judges. 



THE KEY TO TRUTH: 

CONSISTING OF EXPOSITORY REMARKS ON TECHNICAL PHRA- 
SES, AND CONTROVERTED PASSAGES RELIED UPON 
IN SUPPORT OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 

BY £. H. LAKE. 
1 vol. 12nio., pp. 311. Price 75 cents. 

This work was written during the author's residence in the 
South. It is " multum inparvo" It consists of five parts. 
Part first embraces a Bible view of controverted phrases and 
passages. Part second consists of brief essays on a variety 
of subjects. Part third embraces the arguments for a world's 
salvation. Part fourth presents the objections to endless 
punishment. Part fifth consists of extracts of sermons, to- 
gether with selections from the writings of eminent authors ! 
Let this work be read and circulated extensively among the 
opponents of Universalism. 



THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE 

OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 
By Thos. B. Thayer. 1 voL 16mo., pp. 251. 75 cents. 

This work is designed to furnish an outline of the argu- 
ments by which it is shown that the doctrine of Endless Pun- 
ishment is of heathen origin. It reviews the Old and New 
Testaments, showing that is not found there ; and then exam- 
ines the theology of the Pagans, demonstrating its origin in 
this, and the reasons of its invention, as confessed by the 
Pagans themselves. It is then shown in what way the doc- 
trine found place in the Jewish religion — and finally how it 
passed from the Jews on one side, and from the Heathen on 
the other, into the Christian church. 

The author has collected a large amount of facts and au- 
thorities bearing on the subject, and the book is full of valu- 
able and interesting information, which ought to be familiar to 
every Christian believer. 

The present edition has been greatly enlarged and improv- 
ed, by the addition of new facts and testimonies. Several 
new sections and chapters are added, and others wholly re- 
written, making much of the volume entirely new. The work 
has been remarkably successful, the first edition of 2000 cop- 
ies having been exhausted in three or four months without the 
help of a single advertisement. 



AN EXAMINATION 



OF THE 

DOCTRINE OF FUTURE RETRIBUTION. 

In connection with the Moral Nature of Man, the 
Principle of Analogy, and the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. By Hosea Ballon. 

1 vol. 12 mo. pp. 216. Price 63 cts. 



The object of the writer of the above work is to place his 
views, respecting the doctrine of a future state of retribution 
before the public, and to preserve his arguments on that sub- 
ject, that when the time shall come, as he believes it will, 
when people in general will number the tenet of future pun- 
ishment among those corruptions of Christianity, which will 
then be abandoned, it may be known that the writer disbe- 
lieved it in his day, and also that the arguments with which 
he opposed it may then be known. 



THE CKOWN OF LIFE* 

A SERIES OF DISCOURSES, 

BY I. D. WILLIAMSON, D. D. 

1 vol. 12mo. pp. 407, price, plain, cloth, $T00, gilt 
(extra) SI 50. 



The Author of this work says : — It has been my aim to ■ 
present a hopeful view of the Divine Government, which can 
see signs of promise in every cloud, and stars of hope in eve- 
ry night, and thus, to win the soul to happiness and virtue. 



ELEVEN SERMONS ON IMPORTANT DOCTRI- 
NAL SUBJECTS, 

WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. 

BY HO SEA BALLOU. 
l%ol. 12nio>, pp. 235. Price 63 cents, 



This work Las been for a long time out of print, and many 
inquiries have been made for it. The venerable author never 
produced poor sermons. There is a peculiar originality in 
all he wrote. On all subjects he spoke with a clearness and 
force of argument that carried conviction to the minds of all 
unprejudiced believers. In regard to the character of the 
sermons, we have a word to say. They are all on important 
doctrinal subjects. No Universalist can read them without 
feeling a deep and lively interest in the matter before Mm. 



A YOICE TO MIVEKSALISTS, 

BY HOSEA BALLOU. 

1 vol. 12mo., pp. 272. Price, plain cloth, 75 cents; full 
gilt, cloth, (extra,) $1.00. 



The work, here laid before the public, consists partly of 
original pieces written by Mr. Ballou for this volume, and 
partly of articles from his pen which have appeared in dif- 
ferent periodicals. 

To the former class belong A General Epistle to Univer- 
salist, Momentous Questions, Essay on Universal! sm, Advice 
to Young Men who design to enter the Ministry, The Doctrine 
of Universal Salvation, and The Utility of Evil. 

The latter class is made up of such selections, from his 
writings, as it was thought desirable to preserve in a more 
permanent form than that in which they first appeared. 



A 

COLLECTION OF MISCELLANEOUS 

POEMS, 
BY HOSEA B AL LOU. 

1 vol. 12mo., pp. 208. Price, plain cloth, 75 cents; full gilt, 
cloth, (extra) $1.00. ♦ 



This collection of poetry from the pen of Rev. Hosea Bal- 
lou is made from his impromptu contributions to various pub- 
lications, and particularly from the Universalis! Magazine, 
while the author was editor of its pages. 

When Mr. Ballou wrote verse or prose, he had a purpose 
in view ; not merely that of rhyme and musical construction, 
but the end of doing some good by the effort he made at 
composition. He never wrote a line without this incentive ; 
and to the discriminating these poems will commend them- 
selves, as characteristic of their author, who now sleeps in 
death ! 



THE VISION OF FAITH, 

A SERIES OF SERMONS ON THE DECALOGUE, AND THE 
lord's PRAYER. 
BY I. D. WILLIAMSON, D. D. 

1 vol. 16mo., pp. 263. Cloth, plain, 50 cents ; mo- 
rocco, gilt, 75 cents. 



The discourses contained in this volume, were originally 
prepared in the ordinary course of sermonizing, and deliver- 
ed to the congregation of which the author is Pastor. The 
favor with which they were received, has induced the writer 
to publish them in a form suitable for preservation. They 
are now presented, (with some alteration) with the wish that 
they may be the means of doing good. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 
RE Y, ABEL C. THOMAS. 

INCLUDING RECOLLECTIONS OF PERSONS, 
INCIDENT AND PLACES. 

1 vol. 12mo. (with portrait of the Author,) pp. 308. 
Plain cloth, 81.00 ; gilt, (extra,) 61.50. 



This book was written by repeated solicitations of person- 
al friends, whose partiality for the author may have biassed 
their judgment in regard to the general interest of the publi- 
cation. Some of the incidents have before been published, a 
few have been recalled by persons acquainted with the facts, 
others have been revived by association, but chief reliance 
has been placed on a retentive memory. 



THE BOOK OF PROMISES ; 

OB, 

THE UNIVERSALIST'S DAILY POCKET COMPANION, 

Being a Collection of Scripture Promises, ar- 
ranged under their proper heads, 

BY S. B. EMMONS. 

1 vol. 32mo., pp. 128. Price 25 cents. 

To a class of believers nothing should be made so familiar 
as those truths that constitute the basis of their peculiar faith, 
By a perusal of these pages, it will be perceived that an ef- 
fort has been made to collect and arrange the divine promises 
so that at a glance, as it were, we can survey the whole 
ground on which rests all our expectations of immortal good. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



THE LILY OF THE VALLEY, 

AN ORIGINAL ANNUAL WITH SIX SPLENDID MEZZOTINT EN- 
GRAVINGS. 

1 vol. 12mo. Elegantly bound in morocco, gilt, $2.00 



OUR COUNTRY; 
OR THE AMERICAN PARLOR KEEPSAKE. 

EDITED BY WM. H. RYDER. 
1 vol. 12mo. Muslin, plain, $1.00 ; extra muslin, full gilt, 

$1.50. 



We have no apology to offer for presenting the above 
work to the public. If it does not prove its own claim to the 
approbation of the people, nothing which it is proper for us 
to insert here will render it any more acceptable. This is 
truly an " American Book " of great merit, its contributors 
being some of the most talented men in our country. 



CYPRESS LEAVES. 

BT 

LOUISE J. C U T TEE. 
WITH A BIOGRAPHY. 

BY 

MARY W. J AN VEIN. 

1 vol. 12mo., pp. 336. Price, plain muslin, $1.00 ; extra 
muslin, gilt, $1.50, (with portrait.) 



To gratify a sacred, dying wish, have the writings now of- 
fered to the public in their present form, been gathered. " If 
you think they are worthy, let them be published after I am 
gone, " said a young and lovely being, who lay resting under 
the ruthless touch of that Destroyer, who loves to mark 
Earth's fairest beings for his own ; and thus, with its merits 
and its faults — its beauties and its blemishes — goes forth 
this book. 



SABBATH SCHOOL EXHIBITION PIECES. 



Introductory Piece, for boys or girls, per doz. 25 

The Spoiled Girl, for four girls, per doz. 25 

The Rainbow, for seven girls, per doz. 25 

The Messiah, for twelve girls, per doz. 25 

Joseph and his Brethren, for thirteen boys, per doz. 38 

Miracles of Christ, per doz. 38 

May Day Songs and Choruses, for three girls, per doz. 38 
Faith, Hope and Charity, boys and girls, an indefinite 

number, with banners, &c, per doz. 75 

Alphabet Class, for 5 or 25 girls or boys, or both, per doz. 50 

Resurrection of Lazarus, for 6 girls and 2 boys, per doz. 38 

School Scenes, from 15 to 54 girls and boys, per doz. 50 
Moses in the Bulrushes, for 4 girls and attendants, per 

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Altars of Nature, for 9 girls and 3 boys, per doz. 5C 
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chorus, per doz. 50 
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May Queen, for 17 girls and 2 girls, per doz. 50 

Feast of Tabernacles, for 12 girls, per doz. 50 

Sabbath School Oratorio, for 8 boys and 5 boys, per doz. 7 5 

Crowning of Charity, for 13 girls and boys, per doz. 75 
The Beatitudes, for 18 girls and 12 boys, per doz. 1 00 
pp. 11) The Silver Bell, for 4 girls, ' 1 25 
6) The Mother's Gift, for 2 girls and 1 boy. 
22) Youth of David, for 2 girls and 13 boys. 
13) Tongue Bridle, for 5 girls and 1 boy. 
20) Festival of the Cherries, 5 girls and 5 boys. 

PAMPHLETS. 

Eeliey's Union, 12 

Winchester's Dialogues, 25 

Jeremy White on Universal Restoration, 25 

Seigvolk's Everlasting Gospel, 13 

Pettipierre on Divine Goodness, 12 

Universalism Against Partialism, 19 

Streeter's Familiar Conversations, * 25 

Lake & Todd's Discussion, 25 

Miner's Sermon on the Death of H. Ballou, 20 

" " " " " Mrs. Ballou, 12 

John Foster's Letter, with Sawyer's Preface, 50 



Mrs. Soule's Letter on the Death of her Husband, 60 

Ballou's Convension Sermon, 1847, 12 

Truth to Make You Free, by J. F. Witherell, 17 

Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Chapter of Matthew, 

with Notes by H. Ballon, 2d. 6 1-4 

Opinions and Phraseology of the Jews, concerning the 

Future State, by H. Ballou, 2d, 12 1-2 

Answer to Paine's Age of Reason, by Elhanan Winches- 
ter, 25 

The Danvers Discussion, a report of the Diseusion at 
Danvers, Mass., between M. P. Braman and Thos. 
Whittemore. Price 25 

A Sermon delivered in New York at the session of Gen- 
eral Convention of Universalists, Sept. 1847, by 
Hosea Ballou. Price 12 

A Farewell Discourse preached in Taunton, Mass., Nov. 

1851, by George W. Quiniby. Price 12 

A Discourse delivered in School street Church, Boston, 
at the funeral of the Rev. Hosea Ballou, senior pas- 
tor, by his colleague, A. A. Miner. Price 20 

A Discourse delivered in School street Church, Boston, 
the Sunday after the funeral of Mrs. Ruth Ballou, 
relict of the late Rev. Hosea Ballou. Price 12 

Three Discourses upon Capital Punisment, by E. H. 

Chapin. Price 18 

One Hundred Arguments in favor of Universalism ; a 

tract. Price 6 

Two Hundred and Thirteen Questions without answers; 

a tract. Price 6 

Power of Truth or Universalism : Good in Life and in 

Death ; a tract. Price 8 

PORTRAITS. 

The following is a list of Steel Engravings of eminent 
Universalist Ministers. They are from the best artists in 
the country, and are considered goody Viz , 

Price. 

Hosea Ballou, full length, on steel, India impression, §10.00 
Proofs before Letters, 5.00 
Prints, 3.00 
John Moore, lithograph, 1.00 
Thomas Whittemore, lithograph, 1.00 
John Murray, 20 
Hosea Ballou, 25 
Thomas Whittemore, 20 



Hosea Ballon, 2d 7 20 

E. H. Chapin, 20 

A. A. Miner, 20 

O. A. Skinner, ' 20 

T. B. Thayer, 20 

S. Streeter. 20 

W. H. Rydeiy 20 

A. C. Thomas, 20 

A. G, Laurie, 20 

J. D. Williamson^ 20 

G. V. Maxham, 20 

Moses Ballon, 20 

E. Fisher, 20 

W. A. Drew, 20 

L. Willis, 20 

G» W. Montgomery^ 20 

S. P. Skinner, 20 

J.M. Cook, 20 

E» M. Pingree, 20 

J W. Talbot, 20 

TEXT BOOKS. 

Bible Exercises, by A, A. Miner, per. doz* 2,50 

Paige's Questions, by L. R. Paige, per. doz* 2,50 

Hudson's Questions, by Chas. Hudson, per. doz. 2,50 

Bible Class Assistant, by T. B. Thayer, per, doz.> 2,50 

Our Saviour, by Julia, per. doz. 1,25 

Lessons cn Prayer, by Julia, per. doz* 1,00 

Duties of a Day, by Julia, per. doz. 75 

Things to- love, by Julia, per doz. .75 

WTiat I must try to be, by Julia, per. doz. 50 
First Step in the Sunday School, by J. M. Usher, per* doz. 50 

Child's Bible Book, by T. Whittemore, per, do2u 50 

Things to Love, (on cards) per sett. 38 

What I must try to be, (on cards) per sett* 25 

Teachers Class Papers, per. doz. 06 

SERVICE AND CLASS BOOKS. 

Eastern Harp, by John Boyden, per. doz, 2,50 

S. S. Choir, by T. Whittemore, per. doz. 2,50 

Conference Hymns, by T. Whittemore, per, doz, 2,50 

Teachers Class Book, per, doz, 75 



JUVENILES. 

Young folks at Home, 18mo. 50 

Lectures to Youth, 18mo. 50 

Not Rich but Generous, 18mo. 38 

Small Means and Great Ends, 18mo. 38 

The Rainbow, 18mo. 38 

Never Give Up, 18nio. 38 

Autumn Blossom, 1 8hio. 38 

The Twig, 18mo. 38 

Angel from Paradise, 3& 

The Sunday School Present, 18mo. 13 

The Little Organ Girl, 18 mo. 25 

Flowers for all Seasons, 18mo. 25 

The Rose Tree, 18mo. ' 25 

No, and other Stories, 18mo. 20 

Boys and Girls Gems, 18mOe 20 

The Silver Bell, 18mo. 17 

Uncle Johns Library (12 vols. ) each, 17 

Little Hymns and Pictures, paper each, , 08 

Stories for Little Boys and Girls, paper each, 08 

Little Presents, paper each, 08 



SABBATH SCHOOL PAPER, " THE MYRTLE, 59 

A paper devoted to the Sabbath School interests, is pub- 
lished once in two weeks. Terms— Single copy, 50 cents 
per annun ; ten or more copies to one address 25 cents per an- 
num. And for every ten copies taken, one will be given as 
a premium. 

Note,— Any of the within named Publications will be sent 
by mail, post-paid, on receipt of the retail price* 

SABBATH SCHOOLS 

Furnished with all the Lesson Books, Class Books, and 
Papers, Cards, &c, published in the denomination, on the 
same terms as they can be had of the publishers* 

HYMN BOOKS, 

Of all kinds used in the denomination furnished on the same 
terms as they can be had of the publishers. 

BIBLES of all sizes, and styles of binding, and a 

GREAT VARIETY OP BOOKS, 

In rich bindings, suitable for presents. 
CASH ORDERS will be promptly attended to if the 
articles ordered are to be found in the city t 



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